Some people are able to control their blood pressure completely by non-drug methods. As noted earlier, diet and exercise can play important roles. Another factor in the equation is the ability to control stress and to relax. You can’t lose with this winning combination. In addition to the blood pressure control achieved, you’ll simply feel better.
The relaxation response can elicit a fall of four to five systolic points and two to three points of diastolic pressure. That’s good, but it’s not clinically significant. Certainly one feels better when using the relaxation response, and I try to work it into my own life regularly.
But for really effective hypertension benefits, we need something more potent. One such method appears to be biofeedback. Dr Keith Sedlacek discusses this fully in his book The Sedlacek Technique: Finding the Calm Within You (1989). In research at St Luke’s Hospital in New York, he worked with hypertensive patients who practised biofeedback techniques for as little as 10 weeks. They averaged a reduction of 14 points systolic and 12 points diastolic.
The patients in Dr Sedlacek’s study suffered from hypertension for more than two years, and 27 out of 30 were on medication. Pressures fell from an average of 144/95 to 130/83. Many patients were able to significantly reduce their need for antihypertensive drugs.
Biofeedback may or may not be the answer for you. It does take a degree of effort and commitment, and skills get better as one practises on a regular basis. It’s not quite as simple as doing a breathing exercise or utilising the relaxation response. For the most thorough and intensive biofeedback experience you may wish to consider working with a professional counsellor. He or she can train and coach you in techniques whereby you control your body’s response to the environment. All practitioners utilise some manner of “feeding back” information as to how well you’re responding.
In the most elaborate set-ups, patients are literally “wired” to detect their body temperature, heart rate, breathing and palm sweatiness. It is, in effect, the apparatus used in lie detection. On a lesser, much simpler, level one may use an ordinary fever thermometer held in the grip of the hand to monitor temperature changes. Some utilise specially designed strips or rings which remind one of the mood ring fad of some years ago but which are more accurate today.
The first step is to relax the body and mind. The procedure typically is deep breathing and/or variations on the relaxation technique. Once the person is fairly relaxed and receptive to further calming, he or she will concentrate on increasing the body’s temperature. He or she breathes in and out regularly and in a controlled manner. The concentration on the body’s temperature and breathing, as well as on heart rate in some cases, enables one to remove oneself from surrounding stresses and pressures of life. To aid the concentration, one looks at the thermometer, ring, strip or other device now and then to gauge progress.
As I’ve said, practice makes perfect. At each session, one attempts greater and greater control over the heat-generating capability and the speed at which improvement in calming is “fed back”. Does it work? Indeed it does for many thousands who have given it a real trial.
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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol
