Figure 1.

The study design. Explanation in the text. RR: Relaxation Response. RR 20 min: after 4 days of training, each subject relaxes through meditation or music appreciation for 20 min. A blood sample is taken immediately before and immediately after. The acute variation of the studied parameters can be attributed to the practice of relaxation according to the used methods because the precise timing of blood sampling (before and immediately after the end of the session) prevents any other influences. All groups were subjected to the same environmental conditions: in particular, also the control patients were taken in our classroom for 20 min and were not subjected to any intervention. We simply asked them to relax and most of them sat down with eyes closed. For more details please see our previous works [26,27].