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The Congressional Prevention Coalition

The Congressional Prevention Coalition serves as a forum for education and discussion on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of preventive approaches in health, social and economy policy. This new, active Coalition communicates to the Congress science-based information about prevention-related initiatives in social and economic policy and focuses on ways to integrate disease prevention and health promotion in our health care system.

The Congressional Prevention Coalition on Stress Prevention: Its Impact on Health and Medical Savings, on June 24, 1998 was co-sponsored by Senators John Chafee and Bob Graham, and Representatives Jim Leach and Jim Moran and the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy.

PRESENTATIONS

Moderator: John Hagelin, Ph.D., Director, Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy

Norman Anderson, Ph.D., Director of NIH's Office of Behavior and Social Science
Research: The Impact of Stress on Health: Recent Findings from NIH-Funded Research

Robert Schneider, M.D. Director, Center for Health and Aging Studies, Principle Investigator on multiple NIH-funded grants: Stress Reduction in the Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Lee Lipsenthal, M.D. Medical Director, Preventive Medicine Research Institute (founded by Dr. Dean Ornish): Behavioral and Physiological Benefits of Stress Management in the Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease

STRESS PREVENTION

In NIH funded, randomized clinical trials, stress-reducing meditation was 2 1/2 times more effective in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure than conventional relaxation. Effects were comparable to standard pharmacological treatment, but without the adverse side-effects or high cost of hypertensive drugs. R.H. Schneider et al., Hypertension 26 (1995) 820-827 and 28 (1996) 228-248. In clinical research, a regimen of diet, exercise, stress reduction and psychological support was shown to produce marked improvements in the incidence of angina and arterial blockage, as well as 88% avoidance of bypass surgery in patients recommended for such surgery. D.M. Ornish, Cardiovascular Risk Factors (July 1992) 276-280.

The Need

Despite rapid advances in modern medical science--and record high per capita medical expenditures--Americans endure some of the poorest health of any industrialized nation. But much of our nation's ill health is preventable.

Leading medical experts estimate that 90% of disease is caused or complicated by stress. This epidemic of stress is a strong contributor to both high medical costs and poor medical outcomes.

The Research

Within the past five years, scientific research has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness-- and cost-effectiveness-- of certain stress-reduction therapies in the prevention and treatment of disease.

For example, heart disease, America's No. 1 killer, and its primary risk factor, hypertension, can be largely prevented--and even reversed--through simple, scientifically proven methods of stress reduction and lifestyle modification.

The Savings

Over 50% of Medicare subscribers suffer from high blood pressure and 25% from more advanced stages of heart disease. These illnesses cost over $100 billion annually in largely preventable Medicare expenditures.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield statistics show an average 50% reduction in medical utilization across all 16 disease categories in subjects practicing the Transcendental Meditation program compared to matched controls. D.W. Orme-Johnson et al., Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987) 493-507.

Similarly, most other disease categories show dramatic improvements through use of stress reduction methods.

These savings can be further leveraged by targeting high-risk patients and disease categories (like cardiovascular illness) that are particularly responsive to stress reduction methods.

Effective stress prevention thus provides a scientifically proven means of improving national health and dramatically lowering health care costs.