Doing this one thing in your 50s and 60s could help reduce your risk of heart disease in just two months

If there was something that could lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of heart disease and improve inflammation, you’d want to know about it, right? How about if said something was also free? And didn’t require a complete life overhaul? And would make a difference in a matter of weeks?

This isn’t a hypothetical. A new bit of research backs up the idea that one simple intervention could significantly benefit cardiovascular health in people over 50. What simple intervention, you may ask? Practising mindfulness.

Some bonus actions linked to the same benefits include gratitude journalling and working to become more optimistic.

The study, conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reviewed results from 18 randomised, controlled trials that looked at the impact of gratitude and mindfulness techniques. The participants – who were predominantly aged between their late 50s and mid-60s – tried out a variety of approaches. Some had structured sessions with coaches over the phone, others used apps and online tools and some primarily did solo journalling but had brief check-ins. Most of the programmes included weekly sessions of some form of mindfulness along with tasks participants had to complete at home, and lasted between six and 12 weeks.

The findings were clear – all the mindfulness interventions had a positive impact on cardiovascular health. Over just an eight-week period, blood pressure was lowered in the majority of participants, along with inflammatory markers. The degree of the impact varied between the specifics of the interventions – the most effective was an eight-week WhatsApp-based programme that paired weekly mindfulness sessions with daily microtasks related to gratitude and positivity.

It’s worth noting that these results might not be as clear as cause and effect. In some programmes, participants received encouragement to be more physically active, improve their diets and take their medications as prescribed along with doing mindful activities. It's also very possible that embracing mindfulness led people to take on healthier lifestyle behaviours as a result, and those behaviours are what caused the cardiovascular benefit.

What the research does show, however, is a link between mindfulness and improved cardiovascular health. And considering mindfulness is a free intervention that you can dabble in with just 10 minutes and no equipment, it feels like it’s worth a go.

The findings are also a good reminder that when it comes to looking after our wellbeing, it’s not about isolating the physical from the mental – they play into each other. When we try to improve one area of our health, it’s often a combination of approaches that’s the most successful – including looking after our minds as we do all the other physical stuff that we know is good for us.