Why We Need to Talk About High Blood Pressure
I don’t want to raise your blood pressure. But when you read the words ‘silent killer’ we need to pay attention.
This is what makes the findings of a recent study on blood pressure such sober reading. This is the largest ever study of its kind and the key stats are concerning:
- 37% of adults had high blood pressure
- a whopping 59% of people with hypertension were undiagnosed – this means their risk of stroke, heart attack and early death went up
- only half of people treated by a GP for high blood pressure in England had it under control
- hypertension was 50% more common in men and more common in older people
Clearly the current approach for detecting and treating high blood pressure is not working.
Prevention has to be front and centre
Rather than playing catch up, how do we get ahead of the game? How do we stop hypertension from developing in the first place?
In my experience one of the most effective tools to prevent and reduce hypertension is a simple, daily practice of Vedic Meditation.
Vedic Meditation gets to the root cause of high blood pressure
When the human body is chronically stressed, all pathways in the body are negatively affected. This particularly impacts the respiratory and arterial systems. This ongoing physical tension creates constriction which can lead to elevated blood pressure.
To reduce this strain, we need to rest the system – quickly and consistently.
This is why we see such powerful improvements in regular meditators.
Meditation de-excites the body. This is the exact opposite of the tensed-up, tightness of the fight-or-flight stress reaction.
Within a few minutes the meditator initiates a powerful Relaxation Response. Slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, less constriction of blood vessels and reduced muscle tension.
Jillian Lavender is co-founder of London Meditation Centre and New York Meditation Center, and one of the world’s most experienced Vedic Meditation teachers. She is the author of Why Meditate? and Do Reset.
