Rainer Picha, cardiologist and Director of Maharishi College of Vedic Medicine in Holland, says low-intensity exercise metabolizes fat most efficiently.

When researchers from the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine, in Fairfield, Iowa, and the University of California, Los Angeles, had 60 African-American men and women with high blood pressure meditate 20 minutes twice a day or attend a health education group for seven months, they found that those meditating reduced their overall risk of a heart attack by up to 11 percent, and their stroke risk up to 15 percent.

Currently, she is Chair of the NIH sponsored WISE (Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation), a Co-Investigator in the NIH sponsored Vedic Medicine Efficacy studies and a Co-Investigator in the NIH sponsored Los Angeles Atherosclerosis Study, which is evaluating the role of antioxidants and pro-oxidants in cardiovascular disease.