Lower Your Blood Pressure With Yoga

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What is Yoga?

Yoga is an exercise for mental and physical well-being. Starting in India, the practice has now been adopted by countries like the US. Yoga helps elevate specific symptoms such as inflammation and stress, which is the leading causes of hypertension.

Choosing the right yoga poses can help shift the body to the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports rest and repair the body and switch off the sympathetic nervous system responsible for fight-or-flight stress response.

The enhanced parasympathetic activity has shown proven results in balancing the nervous system of a person. Yoga, in short, has proven to play a significant role in establishing a balance in the nervous system of a person with high blood pressure. Hyper nervous activity is quite common among patients with high blood pressure. With yoga, one can establish control over the nervous activity and lower blood pressure naturally.

Can Yoga Lower My Blood Pressure?

Although yoga can be a fantastic therapy for high blood pressure patients, the asanas or yoga poses should be performed with caution by such patients. It is essential to know as which yoga pose or asana will work best for HBP patient to reap the best results. Moreover, certain yoga poses may also require customization for added benefit to HBP patients.

Doctors often encourage patients to perform yoga poses in combination with HBP medications. It is advisable for the patients not to refrain from consuming the drug unless and until approved by their doctors. The medicine greatly benefits some patients by lowering blood pressure and avoiding hypertension circumstances. But, none medication has shown to treat the disease and prevent its reoccurrence permanently. Yoga, on the other hand, has proven to help stabilize blood pressure permanently in patients who practice certain poses regularly.

Yoga is beneficial for any high blood pressure patient with the following symptoms:

  • Anxiety: A state of mind in which a person often feels extremely worried due to no apparent reason.
  • Cardiovascular Diseases: Patients with high blood pressure often also have certain cardiovascular diseases due to an extensive shot of blood to the heart arteries. Doctors encourage patients who are at risk of developing a cardiovascular disease to improve their quality of life by performing yoga daily.

Yoga inversions to avoid:

Although patients with cardiovascular diseases are often encouraged to perform yoga asanas, patients having gone through cardio surgery or similar treatment should avoid specific yoga inversions.

  • Sarvangasana or Sirsasana: Sarvangasana is a shoulder stand asana, and Sirsasana is a headstand asana. These two types of asanas increase the blood pressure flow to the head as the legs are lifted to a maximum height putting a lot of pressure on the heart and mind, which can increase the blood flow to the weaker areas and cause severe damage.
  • Viparita Karani: It is a very simple and relaxing asana in which legs are placed upwards supporting a wall. Again, you should avoid this as it will increase the blood flow to the heart.

What Yoga Poses Lower Blood Pressure Naturally?

Yoga has undoubtedly proven to help lower blood pressure naturally. Any yoga pose that does not invert the body is beneficial for high blood pressure patients. Yoga asanas that help bring peace to mind are most helpful as they help reduce stress and naturally lower blood pressure. Janusirsana, a yoga asana in which the legs get stretched, and supine pigeon asana for gentle hip movement are also found to be extremely useful in lowering blood pressure.

Yoga poses that involve the movement of the spine can calm the mind and heart, which is hugely beneficial for HBP patients. Seated positions like Virasana, Baddhakonasana, and Upavista Konasana have also been found useful for treating high blood pressure.

Generally, it is not suitable to perform inversion asanas for high blood pressure patients. However, specific mild inversions such as Viparita Karani and Setu Bandha Sarvangasana can help calm down the mind. It will also relax the tensed muscles. Particular bridge poses in yoga have been beneficial in energizing kidneys and calming the nervous system. In turn, this lowers the blood pressure to acceptable levels. This is because you position your head slightly below the heart in the bridge pose.

Yoga Breathing Exercises

Apart from the yoga asanas or poses specific yoga breathing exercises have also been useful in elevating the underlining symptoms of high blood pressure and enhancing the quality life of the patient.

For patients with high blood pressure problems, deep breathing works by soothing the sympathetic nervous system. Also, improving the flow of the blood to tissues primarily in the heart.

According to the findings of a study, taking six deep breaths in around 30 seconds help reduce systolic blood pressure by more than 3.4 units in comparison to yoga asanas that require the performer to sit quietly.

Lower Blood Pressure with Yoga

Yoga has proven to be most beneficial for patients with high blood pressure if done in combination with a multi-therapeutic approach. This strategy includes specific lifestyle changes and ayurvedic remedies for eliminating stress and high blood pressure.

As usual, the results of natural healing may show up late as compared to the quick effects of allopathic treatment. But, the best part of including a natural remedy can help cure a disease forever. Yoga can take care of the problem and assist in holistic healing.

As the nervous system become more balance, the whole body system and mind benefit from it. In short, the patient feels better about oneself. They have high energy levels to carry out daily routine tasks while effectively dealing with stress. You can perform Yoga at home or a park near nature. To achieve optimum results, the best time to complete the yoga asanas is in the morning. Spending a few minutes of your life on yoga can significantly improve the quality of life and overall well being.