Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

A method of controlled breathing developed to lower high blood pressure may also hold the key to controlling anxiety and panic attacks…

"Slow breathing" offers hope as an alternative to dangerous drugs for those suffering from anxiety and panic disorder

Various breathing techniques have long been used for meditation and to relieve stress. And in the last decade medical researchers have developed a method called slow breathing that has been shown to reduce high blood pressure.

Meanwhile, the same method has been adapted for an extensive range of health purposes. We now know that the link between our breathing and other systems of the body, such as the circulatory system, is a powerful one.

The way it works is simple; because they are linked, slowing down and controlling your breathing “forces” your heart to also slow down. This allows major blood vessels around the heart to relax and thus lower your blood pressure. The connection goes further too; our breathing also influences the nervous system and even our brain waves.

Now a ”new” breathing therapy called Capnometry-Assisted Respiratory Training  (CART) is being hailed as a promising new approach to controlling anxiety and panic attacks. In fact, medical experts at the University of California, Davis, believe it may be more effective than traditional cognitive therapy approaches (essentially, talking about the problem and trying to resolve it through rational thinking).

Breathing also has the potential to be more effective than drug therapy. Over the last couple of decades expensive and time-consuming talking therapies have been relegated to the sidelines as pharmaceutical treatment has become doctors’ preferred option. Anxiety and panic disorders have become a major growth area for the drugs industry.

Sadly, these medications have nasty side effects which often result in a lower quality of life for anxiety sufferers. So the news that breathing therapy may control anxiety more effectively than medications is surely a blessing.

Specifically, CART relieves anxiety and panic attacks by reversing hyperventilation, one of the most frequent and frightening sympoms of these conditions. Hyperventilation often becomes a self-perpeuating syndrome. The more the sufferer tries to stop it the worse it gets, generating greater panic and increasingly desperate attempts to control it… it’s a viscious circle.

Anxiety is a natural response we all experience but medical researchers have discovered that abnormal levels of anxiety actually have some organic origins. In other words: it’s not “all in the mind”. People with anxiety disorders show an abnormal response to certain stimuli. Tension alters their breathing, which changes blood chemistry through the buildup of carbon dioxide. This is the mechanism that triggers hyperventilation.

Slow, controlled breathing, on the other hand, stabilizes blood chemistry by balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. Contary to popular belief, it’s not deep breathing that is beneficial. Deep breathing actually increases hypertventilation and thus the sensation of anxiety. The correct way to breathe to counter anxiety is slowly and shallowly.

Despite the new name – CART – therr is nothing new about this method of breathing. It’s been used for decades by asthma sufferers in a form called Buteyko Breathing. And, as pointed out at the start, slow breathing has also become a recognized way to lower blood pressure.

Does your blood pressure meet them?

Don't become one of the "worried well" over unrealistic blood pressure expectations

Do you have high blood pressure? Do you even know what high blood pressure is relative to your age and other cirumstances? And are you frustrated, worried or even frightened about being unable to maintain lower blood pressure?

It’s normal for our blood pressure to rise somewhat as we age. It’s often inevitable. Yet there are many people middle-aged and beyond who believe that if they can’t maintain the blood pressure of a young man or woman there is something wrong.

It’s also normal for our blood pressure to fluctuate throughout the day and to rise and fall in reaction to different circumstances. Many people have “white coat syndrome” whereby the stress of a doctor’s examination along with the dread of a high blood pressure reading combine to drive up blood pressure, sometimes to alarming highs.

And that dread is often justified by doctors prepared to prescribe potentially harmful medications on the basis of two or three unrealistic blood pressure readings in the examination room.

Over many decades normal blood pressure was said to be up to 140 points systolic over 90 diastolic. At times you may even surpass these limits with no risk; it’s your average blood pressure that counts.

Young people tend to have blood pressure much lower and the older you become the more likely it would be to approach the upper limits. No matter how fit and healthy you maintain yourself some hardening of the arteries is unavoidable, hence higher blood pressure.

Yet most doctors, at least those in America, have recently revised their blood pressure guidelines down to a limit of 130 systolic over 80 diastolic. In this way they created millions of new hypertension patients overnight (and I’ll have more to say about this shortly!).

The epidemic of the worried well preys on natural human fears... we must resist it!

Some doctors are even urging stricter guidelines. My jaw nearly dropped when I heard Dr. Oz, Oprah’s medical guru, urging all people to strive for blood pressure of 115 over 60!

The result of such misguided advice is an increase in what are called the “worried well”.  In my experience promoting methods of natural blood pressure control I frequently encounter older people with totally unrealistic expectations. Some are striving for blood pressure of 120 over 70 or even lower and become frustrated and worried at not being able to do so. They write to me to ask what they are doing wrong with blood pressure at 130+ over 80+!

Others have blood pressure approaching the upper limits and fear a heart attack. A friend of mine who used my program logged his readings in a blog, proudly demonstrating an average blood pressure of 129 over 83…

So a reader wrote in asking what was so remarkable about these results, noting that they nearly show “high blood pressure”. I replied by commenting that he must not have noted the age of my friend: 77! (or maybe he had and it just further shows how mislead we are!)

Doctors, the drugs industry and the media in general all carry the blame for this. Lowering the threshholds for not just hypertension but all sorts of medications is part of the fearful times we live in. But probably even more pervasive is the profit motive; creating millions and millions of new patients sells huge numbers of pharmaceuticals.

My advice is to be realistic and refuse to become another of the worried well.

Statin drugs are hugely profitable, making billions for the drug companies

Are you getting medical treatment for lower blood pressure? Has your doctor discussed the use of statin drugs with you? After all, statins are now regularly prescribed for high blood pressure, a condition they haven’t been designed for or tested for.

Or are you one of the many millions already taking statins - as recently revealed - for no damn good reason at all?

For years the medical and pharmaceutical partnership has been ruthlessly pushing statins as the new wonder drug for the 21st century. We regularly see their PR machine at work in newspaper headlines like “Miracle Drug Will Save Millions Of Lives”.

Originally developed to reduce the buildup of  harmful cholesterol, statins were advised for people at risk of heart failure. But in a potent example of “mission creep” they started to address ever increasing ailments and numbers of people. Not content with their millions of customers (er… patients) already suffering heart disease, doctors began prescribing statins as preventive measures.

Many doctors went so far as to urge statin use by every person over the age of 50, regardless of their state of health… some even argued to lower the age threshhold to 30!

In this unthinking and unstoppable march to mass medication all sorts of conditions became easy targets for the “statinizers”. And of course they also claim that statins can prevent or reduce high blood pressure. Millions have already been prescribed for this purpose.

Of course nobody in the medical or pharmaceutical industries talks about side effects… what side effects?

Oh, just severe and painful muscle cramping and a bit of kidney and liver failure, that’s all… just minor side effects. But while the medical authorities try to hide the real figures and extent of the damage, increasing evidence of side effects is coming to light.

And there may be worse to come: the Alzheimer’s Association together with people working in elderly care are concerned that using statins can bring on memory loss and dementia-like symptoms. There’s no proof of it yet but if this turns out to be true it could account for some of the alarming rise in demenia in recent years.

All this risk and potential damage for what? Every drug or treatment has a point where the risks and side effects outweight the benefits. Statins have clearly passed this point, especially when it comes to their preventive use. That’s according to a report published recently by the highly-respected Cochrane Review.

They found that the data used to evaluate statins was “contaminated in such a way as to exaggerate the benefit for primary prevention”.

The Cochrane Review analyzed the entire body of clinical data for statins and concluded:

Importantly, the absolute benefits are really rather small—1000 people have to be treated for one year to prevent one death. It is probably a real effect, but it means a lot of people have to be treated to gain this small benefit. As we don’t know the harms, it seems wrong-minded to me to treat everyone with a statin. In these circumstances, lifestyle changes and stopping smoking would be far preferable.

In light of this report there is no justication whatsoever for recommending statins for every person over 50, much less over 30! The side effects will kill more people than are saved and many more times that number will suffer.

If ever there was one, this is a case of “don’t follow doctor’s orders” - that is, unless you’re proven to be at high risk of heart failure. At the very least make your doctor prove the benefits.

There is very little evidence that statins can safely lower blood pressure and plenty of evidence of the damage it can do to other aspects of your health.

Just say no.