July 12, 2006 – Relaxation, deep breathing and meditation are not only used to deal with the stresses of everyday life. They also help reduce hypertension, according to two recent studies.
Researchers at the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences in India have shown that a single session of mental relaxation (15 minutes) and slow, deep breathing (10 minutes) can temporarily lower blood pressure and heart rate.1. These practices would have a beneficial effect on the entire parasympathetic nervous system, which is generally responsible for putting the body to rest.
Slow, deep breathing was found to be more effective in reducing blood pressure than mental relaxation in the hundreds of participants with and without controlled hypertension. This breathing technique involves taking a deep breath for five seconds and exhaling for five seconds while focusing on the sensation produced by the breath.
Indian scientists believe that including the practice of slow, deep breathing as an adjuvant therapy could reduce drug use and hypertension complications in the long term.
Another study conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, for its part, concluded that meditation may also have beneficial effects on blood pressure.2.
About 100 patients with heart problems practiced transcendental meditation for four months or received information sessions on the effects of stress on health.
Blood pressure decreased in those who meditated for 20 minutes in the morning and evening, focusing on a repetitive sound called a mantra. Their insulin and glucose levels also dropped. This would be attributable, say the researchers, to the decrease in the level of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Globally, a third of men and half of women aged 65 to 75 have high blood pressure, according to the World Health Organization. This disease now affects increasingly younger populations.
Claudia Morissette – HealthPassport.net
1. Kaushik RM, Kaushik R, et al. Effects of mental relaxation and slow breathing in essential hypertension, Complement Ther Med. 2006 Jun; 14 (2): 120-6. Epub 2006 Jan 10.
2. Paul-Labrador M, Polk D, et al. Effects of a randomized controlled trial of transcendental meditation on components of the metabolic syndrome in subjects with coronary heart disease, Arch Intern Med. 2006 Jun 12; 166 (11): 1218-24.
