High blood pressure, which is also referred to as hypertension, doesn’t always come with noticeable symptoms. In fact, it rarely does. However, symptoms can include chest pain, ear noise, confusion, irregular heartbeat, fatigue, as well as changes in your vision. The problem for many people is that these symptoms are associated with a whole range of other conditions.
Yet, if high blood pressure is left untreated, it can increase your risk of developing heart disease, dementia, or stroke.
High blood pressure affects around 1 in 4 people, yet most are unaware they even have it. It is defined by too much pressure on your blood vessels, which in turn increases the pressure on your heart and surrounding arteries. This can cause potentially fatal conditions, such as stroke or heart attack.
The people who are most at risk of high blood pressure include folks who are over 65, anyone who is overweight, people who eat too much salt, as well as those who don’t eat a healthy diet. Stress is also a major contributory factor to high blood pressure.
There are numerous steps you can take to prevent your blood pressure from getting too high, including losing weight, exercising often, maintaining a healthy diet, and cutting back on salt. Another method of lowering your blood pressure is found through meditation.
Meditation Helps The Heart
Although meditation is purely a mental technique, it’s important to note that our neurophysiological state can directly influence our physical well being. In other words, there is a direct link between your mind and body. For example, you can easily influence and manipulate your nervous system by giving it the right kinds of signals.
Meditation puts you in a neurophysiological state that can cause a drop in blood pressure, as well as cholesterol. Moreover, when you lower both of these, you reduce your risk of developing atherosclerosis, a debilitating heart condition linked to high blood pressure.
When You Meditate, You Alleviate Stress
Perhaps the number 1 reason people mediate today is to reduce symptoms of stress. Meditation is indeed a great way to free your mind from the clutter that is weighing you down, and this is important because stress can damage your heart.
When we’re stressed, our body releases more hormones, which in turn causes our heart to beat quicker than normal. It also increases our blood pressure.
Meditation does the exact opposite; it slows down our rapid heartbeat, dilates blood vessels, and lowers blood pressure by reducing the amount of stress hormones that are released into our system.
How Long Does Meditation Take To Lower Blood Pressure?
According to medical research carried out by the Lady Hardinge Medical College in India, meditation has been medically proven to help with stress.
Studies were carried to by the college on 10 people suffering with hypertension aged between 35 and 50. They practiced meditation for 20 minutes each day for a few weeks. At intervals, doctors measured the participants’ blood pressure and heart rate to determine how relaxed or tensed they each were.
According to the doctors, over the course of 12 weeks, blood pressure was reduced from 100 to 80.
Now, there is no quick fix to lowering blood pressure. You can’t do half an hour on the treadmill and expect to have normal blood pressure as soon as you step off the machine.
Likewise, meditation will not bring your blood pressure back to normal immediately. It takes time, but it’s also important that you are aware that each of us is different. Meditation can lower blood pressure in a matter of weeks in some people, while it can take up to two months for others.
Regardless of how long it takes, mediation is one of your best tools to not only lower blood pressure but to greatly improve your health and wellness of the mind, body, and spirit.
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