What is High Blood Pressure? Check it:

– in the U.S. alone, 95% of all reported high blood pressure cases are classified as “undetermined.” This is called essential hypertension.

– Ninety five percent is a big number at which to be shrugging our shoulders — this is a condition that the Centers for Disease Control claims affects 1 in 3, or 68 million Americans.¹

High Blood Pressure is often a precursor to the #1 and #3 leading causes of death in the United States, heart disease and stroke.  Technically, it’s the measure of the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries.  When your blood pressure rises, it means the heart is has to work harder.  It also contributes to hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and causes heart failure.

Western medicine attributes: smoking, obesity, lack of physical exercise, too much processed salt, more than 1-2 cocktails a day, stress, old age, genetics, chronic kidney disease and adrenal and thyroid disorders.

It also attributes it to genetics (high blood pressure runs in families) to gender (it’s more likely to affect men than women), to race (it afflicts twice as many African-Americans as Caucasian Americans, although the gap begins to narrow around age 44. After age 65, black women have the highest incidence of high blood pressure).

Here’s the key: it’s not the behavior that causes the problems, it’s whatever is driving us to choose the behavior that will unlock the key to change.  What is that drives behavior?

Emotions.  It’s how we process (“deal”or “don’t deal” with them), which can be both learned and genetic in families.  In Ayurveda, unprocessed emotions can lead to:

• smoking (many holistic practitioners feel smoking is an attempt to inhale words we are too afraid to say).
• overeating and obesity (often a sign of an unresolved, wounded childhood).
• depression, which can lead to malaise (lack of exercise); over drinking, stress, premature aging, cancer, etc.

You get the picture.

Break the Cycle

In Ayurveda, there is no predetermined outcome because of demographics or genetic code.  The mind controls the body always.   Which means, “Everything is reversible but death.”

Here are four ways to get started eliminating high blood pressure naturally — important because side effects of blood pressure medication are numerous and range from sexual dysfunction to depression, poor circulation to skin rash, insomnia, headaches, constipation, dizziness … the list goes on.  There are also a zillion different classifications of high blood pressure medication as western medicine tries manipulating the body from a variety of angles in an effort to control the symptoms.

Get to the root and control the cause.

If you need more information or a consult, contact me through comments.

Namasté.

Four Ways to Naturally Lower High Blood Pressure

1. Change your Salt.

Get rid of table salt.  It’s evil, and lacks the full spectrum of minerals and other nutrients that protect and enhance your health.  It is a highly refined, processed white substance that in addition to hypertension can cause gastrointestinal problems, kidney stones, fluid retention and calcium depletion (this is very bad).  For the body to metabolize table salt, it must waste tremendous amounts of energy to keep the body at optimum fluid balance. This creates a burden on the elimination systems in the body. Water is removed from other cells in attempt to neutralize the unnatural sodium chloride.  Studies show that for each gram of table salt your system cannot process, your body will use over twenty times the amount of cellular water to neutralize the sodium chloride in chemically treated salt. This can lead to cellulite, rheumatism, arthritis, gout, as well as kidney and gallbladder stones. The average American consumes 5,000 mg of sodium chloride a day, the issue is serious and needs to be addressed.

Switch to Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt which contains 84 minerals and trace minerals.

Choosing to use Himalayan Sea Salt as an alternative can have a big impact on your total health and well-being.  And remember, restaurants are the biggest culprit when using table salt.

2. Do a daily inversion.

Hubby Demonstrates Modified Shoulder Stand

Make a point to spend 1-3 minutes a day in a mini-inversion.  Start off slow.  Doing this even 2-3 times a week will not only reduce your blood pressure immediately, but by having the heart higher than the head you also give your heart a break.  It’s very rejuvenative for the body and is an incredible pose for restoring balance to the mind, body & spirit.

This modified version is super easy to do:

– Take two yoga blankets if you have them, (the best ones are available at The Blanket Connection, and are about $13 each).  If not, use thick towels.

– Fold one into thirds to support the spine, and fold the other in half and place it at the head of the first blanket, making a “T.”

– Grab the legs of a folding chair at the bottom of the T.  Place the feet on the edge of the seat, and push the pelvis up.  Keep the knees pulling towards each other, and if this is too hard to do, get a yoga strap to hold them in place.

– MAKE SURE NOT TO LET GO OF THE CHAIR or it will go flying across the room.  Hold the pose for 2-3 minutes, being mindful to breathe, pushing the belly out with each in hale and pulling the belly in toward the spine as you exhale.

You are revitalizing the pads in between the vertebrae, giving the kidneys a fresh flush of blood, giving the adrenal glands on top of the kidneys a fresh flush of blood, refreshing the pineal and pituitary glands at the base of the skull, giving the face a fresh facial with fresh blood, AND you are also keeping the blood vessels in the BRAIN open — an important way to stave off memory loss and senile dementia.

Did you know there have been autopsies done on yogi’s in their 90s in India, and their brain tissue was like that of a 12-year-old because they did daily inversions?

Oh yeah, and it reduces hypertension.

Where can you get all of that from a 3-minute pose?

3. Take Carditone.

I LOVE Ayush herbal products because they are clean and organic.  And Carditone is an Ayurvedic herb that for years has helped people reduce high blood pressure.  If you have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure, start taking Carditone as well as the other three things on this list.  Then, under the supervision of your doctor, start weaning yourself from your hypertension medications.  If your doctor won’t work with you to do this, find a doctor that will work on your terms.

4. Eat more Fruits and Veggies, fresh fish and meats, and whole grains.

Duh.  Get rid of the McDonald’s and the Burger King, and keep processed foods as a rare treat.  You will find you won’t enjoy it nearly as much as you used to.

References

1. CDC. Vital signs: prevalence, treatment, and control of hypertension–United States, 1999-2002 and 2005-2008. MMWR. 2011;60(4):103-8.