Meditation is known to help with many things from quieting a restless mind, to help with ADHD, to alleviating depression and helping with making decisions.
Now, doctors have developed a unique meditation that can lower your blood pressure.
It’s isn’t that unusual of a link when you think about it. Meditation resolves a lot of stress, which can be a
trigger for high blood pressure.
Lowering the stress level drops the blood pressure.
The Facts
The technique was developed by Dr. Herbert Benson, who is the director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.
The school isn’t an outside-the-box facility as it is affiliated with Harvard University.
The technique is created to draw on a relaxation response.
This response is the complete opposite of the fight-or-flight response induced by stress.
Benson’s meditation technique includes quieting brain activity and is similar to both mindfulness and
transcendental meditations.
The technique helps lower blood pressure but can also help with other ailments that are either caused or are more pronounced with stress.
Some elderly participants in a study found that using the technique resulted in them reducing or eliminating their blood pressure medications.
Other Results
Additional research shows that lower blood pressure during the relaxation technique leads to less active
inflammation and blood vessel contraction and also results in blood vessels expanding.
One key element in this process is nitric oxide, an element that induces relaxation, blood vessel expansion, and keeping blood pressure in check.
Another small study showed that those who did the relaxation response for eight weeks had higher
nitric oxide levels.
Here’s How
Here is how to practice this meditation technique:
- Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes.
- Relax muscles and silently say something repeatedly. It can be a word, a mantra, a sound, or a prayer. The choice is yours.
- As stray thoughts arise, let them go and keep repeating your word, sound, phrase, or prayer.
Conclusion
Benson recommends doing this twice a day for between 10 and 20 minutes to have good results.
It may take up to two months to see your blood pressure consistently lower.
