High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer”. In a recent Guardian article, Phil Daoust highlights the scale: almost 1.4 billion adults have hypertension, and over 600 million aren’t getting treatment.

After looking at smoking, alcohol, diet, salt and exercise, one major factor remained: stress.

Dr Sabine Donnai at Viavi Health Management tracked Daoust for 72 hours and saw how constant sympathetic drive was pushing his blood pressure up. Even at night there was almost no recovery. “Your system doesn’t recognise when to switch off,” she told him. “There is a lot of uncompensated stress.”

Her recommendation? Meditation, along with yoga and breathwork.

The mechanics are simple.

The profound rest of Vedic Meditation counterbalances stress reactivity. Within minutes the nervous system shifts into a parasympathetic state: deep rest with alert, balanced functioning.

Heart rate and blood pressure normalise. Digestion settles. Stress chemistry drops, and brain coherence rises.