HOW TO LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE & STRESS LEVEL NATURALLY WITH BREATHING EXERCISE.

 

HOW  TO LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE & STRESS LEVEL NATURALLY WITH  BREATHING EXERCISE.

Blood pressure is thought to have no cure , but once you understand  why high blood pressure happens, you will start learning how to lower high blood pressure . High blood pressure , is not something that happens to you. It is something that your body creates with every heart beat, and if you understand why it is created , you can start taking measures to reduce it.

Let us look at the basics to understand why breathing is going to work. Breath is a barometer for the nervous system . As the nervous system becomes imbalanced, breathing changes, becoming shallow, tense, and jerky. This change is then registered by the mind and begins to create internal distress, which sustains poor breathing, which promotes a state of distress.In this way, an internal cycle begins and is reinforced. Stress then takes on a life of its own, even persisting after the original stressor has been resolved. Learning to breath correctly with  awareness is the only way to break this powerful cycle.

The natural methods you will learn are equally powerful to prevent high blood pressure from developing as they are to reduce high blood pressure naturally. Breath & breathing patterns are closely linked to the way that the automatic nervous system regulates blood pressure, that is why relaxing breaths can help control blood pressure.

Normal blood pressure depends on the situation , resting blood pressure for one who is upright should be around 120/80, if you are lying down it will be less because blood flows easier as it does not have to overcome gravity. If you are exercising , you are creating a tremendous demand on your body , you are demanding increase of blood flow & nutrients delivery, so you have to increase your heart rate & blood pressure , it is appropriate. During exercise your blood pressure may go up to 220 & this is normal. 

Stress increases the demand on the body, exercise is also a stress. Stress is basically a balance between your SYMPATHETIC (left side of the brain)  & PARASYMPATHETIC nervous system (right side of the brain).

 Sympathetic is also known as "fight flight" mode, this part of nervous system takes over when triggered by a stressor, the breath becomes rapid and shallow and is moving primarily in the upper part of the chest. Although this state is useful for moments when we must act quickly or when we are in danger, too much time spent here reinforce  stress and can open the door to chronic illness and prolonged mental and emotional imbalance.

Parasympathetic nervous system supports rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation, this is known as "feed , breed or rest digestion". This response is triggered , in part, by deep diaphragmatic breathing. Breathing exercises and relaxation practices help us to access this state. 

Both  Sympathetic & Parasympathetic are the automatic portion of your nervous system, it is a resource allocation system, blood delivers resources , and these decide where the blood goes , like when you are exercising then most of the blood should go to your muscles , as there they are needed to perform the work, so your sympathetic nervous system sends most of the blood to the muscles. Then , when you relax then your sympathetic back-off & allow your parasympathetic to get some of the blood to your vital organs so that you can digest food , make immune cells & so that you can heal tissue. These systems are like see-saw, when one increases, the other decreases. When you have stress , it is going to increase your heart rate, blood pressure , cortisol , blood glucose etc. 

There are different types of STRESS - exercise is a physical stress & what most people have and suffer from is emotional stress. We can say that exercise is an appropriate stress , but emotional stress is sort of imaginary stress , it does not demand a lot of physical exertion but your nervous system responds in just that way - it will increase your heart rate, blood pressure , cortisol , glucose level, even if you are sitting and getting stressed due to any reason what so ever . Basically emotional stress is thoughts about the unwanted, focusing on something that you do not want, you like to be different then you have emotional stress. Most of the stress we are not aware of , because we have done it so much that it became a habit & we learnt to live with it, causing lot of sympathetic activation.

HEART RATE VARIABILITY (HRV) -

It means your heart rate varies, when you breath in, your heart's beat is up, when you breath out it slows down. Body is so incredibly intelligent - when you breath in there is more oxygen in the lungs , so the body speeds up the heart rate to send more blood there to pickup the oxygen because that is more efficient . When you breath out there is less oxygen, so we slow down the heart rate, not wasting resources.

When there is coherence in your nervous system between your brain & your heart then your heart rate variability is going to be coherent , it will form a smooth pattern. If you measure your average heart rate at 65 beats , then if you have a healthy heart variability it means when you breath in then your heart rate is 70 & when you breath out it is 60, this turns out to be the best indicators of  overall health that we know of. People who are not healthy have an incoherent pattern , when you are frustrated, angry then there is just no pattern , every heart beat is sort of chaotic and mismatched. 

The best part is , this you can influence, you can learn & practice and get it better. The way to do that is by paying attention to your breathing pattern. Most people if you observe, they breath in about 2 seconds & breath out in about 1 second, ie about 20 breaths per minute, this breathing pattern is also called surface breathing, or shallow breathing. So, there is not enough time for the body to relax, there is not enough time for the body to kick in the parasympathetic , we only get sympathetic with breath in , but no time for parasympathetic to engage due to less exhalation time. 

But if we slow the breathing down, if our inhalation time is 4 seconds & exhalation time is 5 seconds, where inhalation is deep & exhalation is bit longer, in this pattern of breathing we have about 6 breaths per minute , now we create a balance between the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous system. It is not that one thing is good and the other is bad, it is like everything else in the body there needs to be in balance. This pattern can be attained by practice, the first thing is we need to pay attention to our breath , when we slow our breathing pattern & pay attention to our in-breath and out-breath, we change our focus , it may look a small thing but it is the biggest thing to happen, because when you focus on your breath then at the same time you can not focus on things that are unwanted , try it - if you are stressed due to any reason then you pay attention to your breath, then for just a fleeting moment you did not thing about that other thing and that is an incredibly powerful principal as you are now no longer doing that thing that keeps you in your state of  emotional stress , and if you do enough of that then you can brake the pattern. 

It has to be developed as habit and momentum , it has to be a life style. When you regularly practice this , then it becomes a skill and you maintain that skill then you reconfigure the tissue in your brain , your neuro-pathway become different, it becomes wider . Emotional stress is a habit & if you develop a skill or a momentum that is opposite of that habit then the unwanted habit goes away. You can practice the slow breathing pattern ones or twice a day for 10-15 minutes, and continue to do it until you see results, but once you see result do not stop, else the habit will go away . Set your goals for at least 6 months, then it will be your habit & you will keep doing it for ever, it becomes your norm. 

The benefits to this is endless , your sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous system is what is your health is , it determines how you function . If you do this on a regular basis it is not that only your blood pressure goes down , you are rewiring all of you - your cortisol , insulin resistance will go down , your circulation will improve , your digestion will improve , you will get more nutrients out of your food you eat , immune function will improve , you will feel better, even your fertility will improve , you will heal better , also those suffering from Hidrosis (sweating hands due to stress) will go away. your focus gets better, your memory gets better as you are sending more blood and oxygen to your brain, and the list of benefit gets endless.

We can learn to cultivate specific skills for proper breathing that will help us in all aspects of our life. We might think of this set skills as "yogic breathing" , or simply healthy breathing .  We start inhaling gently with count of 4 & then exhale gently with count of 5, & repeat . This is a little deeper breath than the normal shallow breath , but it is not filling your lungs with full capacity , it is not deep breathing. This breathing should  initiate or breath from your belly , the best way of doing it is to put one hand on your belly and as you breath in you will notice your belly expanding , in the first part of your breath your belly is expanding and then slowly and gently allow the breath to rise into your rib cage and expand your lungs and chest just a little bit , then you relax and let it out very very slowly. Always breath through your nose , keeping in mind that there should not be any sound, at no point you should breath hard enough to make a sound both in & out. This process has to be very smooth. Do not use your shoulders or make them tensed  by raising them while breathing in, because that is a stress response , always keep your shoulders relaxed.