Dr. Oz: Make Meditation Your New Year's Resolution

According to polls, the most popular New Year's resolutions for 2011 are: lose weight, quit drinking and/or smoking, exercise, manage your debt, reduce stress, get a better job, fall in love and volunteer to help others.

But if Dr. Mehmet Oz is correct, perhaps "learn to meditate" should be added to the top of everyone's list.

Meditation is emerging as a powerful stress-buster. Research shows that it can have health benefits equivalent to or better than some of the leading medications for reducing high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Dr. Oz, a meditator himself, spoke at the "Change Begins Within" benefit on Dec. 13 in New York City. The event was sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation, to raise funds to teach 10,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder how to meditate. Addressing the impact of stress and its toll on the human heart, Dr. Oz explained how the Transcendental Meditation technique reduces the three main risk factors for heart disease. (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post