Hypertension is a condition in which the pressure in the body's cardiovascular system is too high most of the time.
Many people who take yoga for health and fitness have high blood pressure, though it is unclear how many of them engage in the mind-body system as a way to specifically deal with hypertension, as opposed to merely taking yoga for health and healing.
Ironically, people with hypertension who regularly take yoga, deep breathing or meditation classes incidentally may be doing their bodies a favor, since research suggests that yoga may reduce one's heart rate and improve the symptoms of high blood pressure.
Hypertension is a condition in which the pressure in the body's cardiovascular system is too high most of the time. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that a systolic/diastolic blood pressure higher than 140/90 is a reasonable indicator that you may have hypertension, though only a doctor may make that call.
Many factors contribute to hypertension, some of which – like aging, race and family history of the disease – are unavoidable. However, the NIH states that people who eat a low-sodium diet, exercise, maintain a normal body mass and avoid tobacco and excess alcohol consumption have a lower risk of having high blood pressure.
This condition can be thought of in the following way. One of the prime vascular causes of high blood pressure is arteriosclerosis, or the gradual hardening of one's arteries. In youth, the blood vessels are stretchy and resilient, meaning that when your blood pressure goes up, your veins and arteries expand to restore equilibrium.
Hard arteries cannot expand, meaning people with arteriosclerosis or hypertension need alternate ways to lower their blood pressure.
Enter yoga. Studies in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the Journal of Clinical Hypertension have stated that, beyond pharmaceutical treatments, yoga and other alternative mind-body therapies can help individuals with the disease relax and decompress, in both an arterial sense and a larger, transcendental sense.
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Tags: high blood pressure, yoga for health and fitness, yoga for health and healing
