Category: Stress Reduction for Lower Blood Pressure

Stress and Hypertension

Leave a comment
stress and hypertension

Eggs by Bernard Goldbach on Flickr.com

The link between stress and hypertension is undeniable. The very simple fact is that if you live a high stress life then that fact is probably going to reflect in a higher blood pressure (and probably a shorter life span).

Another thing about stress and stress-related blood pressure is that it’s not always evident. You can be a sufferer of stress and not even realize it. Stress builds up slowly in the dark recesses of your nervous system over the course of years. What feels ‘normal’ to you may actually be a stressful existence.

But stress doesn’t affect us all equally. Some of us can get away with a lot more stress than others when it comes to blood pressure and health in general. I’m not one of those people and stress will always show up in my blood pressure, so I’ve had to take remedies to reduce stress.

 

How to reduce stress and hypertension?

That’s easier said than done. Wanting to reduce stress and actually accomplishing it are two different things. You can’t ‘think’ your stress levels down (in fact, that’s a bit of a mental trap) – you have to DO something.

If you suffer from stress and high blood pressure you want to get the levels of both your stress and hypertension down.

Go for a wee walk

To start, take a walk, preferably in nature, like a path through the woods or your local park if you have one nearby. Get away from loud mechanical noises like cars if possible. The tranquility of nature can be very soothing for your nerves – there are actually psychological studies proving this now, although probably most of us already know it.

(Click here for an article on Walking to lower blood pressure.)

Try Yoga, Tai Chi, Meditation

Doing physical practices like Yoga andTai Chi are also good for reducing stress and hypertension – they are calming and grounding, so they’re effective at lowering stress, but they’re also aerobic physical exercise so help lower blood pressure that way too. There’s a great article on getting into yoga here: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Yoga.

Meditation is another practice that’s becoming more popular as more studies show how beneficial it is for managing stress and difficult emotions. In fact, meditating regularly is good for your brain and body in multiple ways, including helping lower blood pressure.

Acupuncture has also been noted as good for reducing stress and lowering blood pressure – although I haven’t tried that myself. There’s a good article here about reducing stress in general but also with reference to how acupuncture can help you relax: The Relaxation Response (Mindful Medicine) 

Take a deep breath…

Another increasingly popular way to reduce stress and blood pressure is slow breathing. Studies now unequivocally show that breathing slowly for a few minutes can bring your blood pressure down almost instantly. This is particularly good to know in stressful situations when we tend to tense up and breathe more quickly. Remembering to take a few slow breaths when you’re stressed will not only take the edge of your stress levels and help you think more clearly but will also be reducing your blood pressure.

Of course, the moment you start breathing quickly, it’ll shoot back up again. That’s why it’s best to practice slow breathing for ten to fifteen minutes every day. There’s two benefits to this. The first is that the more you practice slow breathing, the more you’ll be able to do it at will when difficult situations arise. The second is that studies also suggest that regular slow breathing will bring your blood pressure down over the long-term, as well as in the immediate moments of slow breathing.

How to do slow breathing to lower stress and hypertension

So how do you do it?

Well, you just sit down comfortably and breathe slowly for fifteen minutes. For some people that’s straightforward. For others, it can be difficult to keep remembering to keep your breathing slow, and to keep breathing at an even rate. Actually, it can be surprisingly tricky!

High Street chemists here in the UK are now selling a special machine called ‘Resperate‘ which assists you in calming down the system through slow, regulated breathing. These machines aren’t cheap – selling for around £100 + – but they do seem to be effective.

Personally I listen to audio recordings to do stress-reducing slow breathing exercises. They have prompts which guide you to keep your breathing at a certain rate. I used to use the BreathEasy tapes but now they’re not available, I’ve created my own guided slow breathing audio recordings.

Just following along for 15 minutes a day helps restore sanity into my life, relaxes my nervous system, and helps keep my blood pressure withing healthy ranges.

Have a laughlaugh to lower blood pressure

And there’s also laughter therapy! Yes, simple laughing – deep, belly laughing that is, not mere chuckles – can do wonders for your stress levels and blood pressure.

Making time for yourself and other ways to reduce stress and hypertension

As well as practicing specific methods and techniques, there are plenty ordinary things you can do, or do more of, that can help you stay relaxed and happy.

Just listening to music is relaxing. You can read more about this on our sister Breathe Slow website here: Can listening to music lower your blood pressure? (Yes.)

Trust yourself. You can tell what activities help you relax and which ones tend to make you tense. Doing anything you personally find relaxing – that absorbs you and takes your mind off any worries – will help. So the key thing is to make more time for those activities. Maybe you can incorporate them more into your daily life, or maybe you need to carve out special times for them. Walk all or partway to work, if you enjoy walking, or put relaxing music on in the car.

If you want more ideas, you’ll find more links and resources to do with stress reduction in our article here: Dealing with stress and hypertension 

Other causes of high blood pressure

Mind you, stress isn’t the only factor that can cause high blood pressure. There’s also poor diet, lack of exercise, and genetics that can contribute to hypertension. Thankfully all these factors can be dealt with. Of course you can’t change your genetic code but adopting a healthy blood pressure lifestyle can counteract any genetic propensities towards developing high blood pressure you may have inherited.

But stress remains a central contributing factor with most people with hypertension. You’ll want to reduce stress in your life one way or the other. Too much stress can cause all sorts of health complications later on in life.

Life stress-free. Live happy. Live healthy.

 

 

Effects of sleep on blood pressure

Leave a comment

effects of sleep on blood pressureWe all know that we get grumpy and irritable when we’re not getting enough sleep (okay, I do anyway). But the effects of not getting adequate sleep can be more subtle than that.

For example, did you know that how much sleep you get – and how well you sleep – can affect your blood pressure?

 

The effects of sleep on blood pressure

The effects of sleep on blood pressure can be quite profound. In fact, several studies over the past decade have found a link between poor sleep quality and quantity and higher blood pressure.

For example, one study that followed hundreds of early-middle-aged people for six years found that when they got less sleep (less than 7 or 8 hours), or didn’t sleep well, they were more likely to have higher blood pressure. Their statistics showed that roughly each hour of sleep that was ‘missed’ equated to a third greater risk of having high blood pressure.

Other studies have found similar effects. There are many factors responsible for the effects of sleep on blood pressure. For one thing, sleep is important for processing stress hormones. So not getting enough good sleep can lead to lingering high levels of stress hormones, which can increase inflammation in the body (which is implicated in high blood pressure and many other health problems), and narrow the arteries, increasing blood pressure.

(UPDATE, April 2016: A study at the University of Helsinki, Finland, has found that insufficient sleep also affects cholesterol metabolism, resulting in lower levels of high-density lipoproteins (the “good” cholesterol that your body needs). This explains why even mild sleep deprivation is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis.)

As well as the effects of sleep on blood pressure, not enough good sleep is also linked with greater risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, as well as cancer, depression, and memory and concentration problems. So it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough.

 

How much sleep do I need?

Scientists generally consider that 7-8 hours a night of sleep is what most people need for our bodies to do all the things they need to do during sleep.

Even if you know you can manage on less sleep, your body may not be coping as well as you think, and adverse effects on your health can quietly be building up.

However, the effects of sleep on blood pressure are not just to do with how much we sleep but also when we sleep.

 

When we sleep – and its effects on blood pressure

Our body clocks, over millennia, are ‘programmed’ for sleeping at night, during hours of darkness. However, our society and working culture tends to place different demands on us, such that many of us now find it difficult to go to bed after sunset and wake with the dawn.

Having a good ‘power nap’ during the day can certainly help, but napping or sleeping at other times isn’t enough to compensate for lack of sleep at night.

Shift workers are most obviously affected, but any of us who find ourselves too busy or stressed to unwind and get a good night’s sleep are potentially placing a great strain on our body.

In fact, scientists are becoming extremely concerned with the increasing restrictions on sleep that modern society places on us, and the effects of sleep on blood pressure that result.

Scientists from Harvard University in the US, and Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and Surrey Universities in the UK recently went so far as to warn that our society is “supremely arrogant” when it comes to dismissing the importance of sleep.

 

Screen dreams – or nightmares?

Another issue affecting our sleep in recent years is the prevalance of brightly lit screens in our lives – computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.

Light is what synchronises our body clock, so light at night can disrupt our natural sleep cycle. The problem is that the type of light that our electronic devices emit (in the blue end of the light spectrum) is exactly the kind of light that will disrupt our body clock. Energy-efficient light bulbs can have a similar effect.

According to Prof Charles Czeisler, from Harvard University, “Light exposure, especially short wavelength blue-ish light in the evening, will reset our circadian rhythms to a later hour, postponing the release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin and making it more difficult for us to get up in the morning.

“It’s a big concern that we’re being exposed to much more light, sleeping less and, as a consequence, may suffer from many chronic diseases.”

 

Can I reduce the effects of sleep on blood pressure?

The effects of sleep on blood pressure are biological, so there’s not much you can do to change the actual effects of sleep on blood pressure.

However, as we’ve seen, how much you sleep, how you sleep and when you sleep can be seriously affected by our lifestyles – so if you make a few changes, you can give yourself a good chance of getting better sleep and thus make sure the effects of sleep on blood pressure are good effects!

UPDATE: Research now shows that having a noontime nap is linked with lower blood pressure, and that this can help compensate for not getting enough sleep at night. So if you can make time for a little siesta, do so.

 

How to get a good night’s sleep

So what can you do? Well, one of the most important things is to establish a regular rhythm as to when you go to bed and get up. This helps your body regulate itself effectively, and get into a good sleeping pattern.

Another thing is to look at your sleeping conditions. Having your room well-aired, and not too hot or too cold, and as dark as possible, and of course quiet, all go a long way to helping you settle into deep sleep once you do fall asleep.

You can also take a look at how you spend your evening, particularly the last hour or two before bed. Avoid alcohol, nicotine (and of course, caffeine), and big meals too close to bedtime as these can keep you up or lead to unsettled sleep. A cup of relaxing herbal tea can help you unwind instead. And it can be helpful to get into a nice routine before, or as, you get ready for bed, to help you gradually switch off from your concerns and get in the mood for sleep.

And last, but absolutely not least – turn off your laptops, smartphones, iPads etc.,  well before you go to bed – most scientists recommend having at least one hour before bed that’s screen-free. As one scientist, Dr Lipman, puts it, have “an electronic sundown.” You’ll probably find this makes it easier for your mind to wind down before bed as well.

And your body will certainly thank you.

 

More ways to lower your blood pressure naturally

You can also find out a lot more about how to get yourself into a good regular sleeping pattern in our guide:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

Step 9 of the guide looks at the effects of sleep on blood pressure. However, there are many other factors (like diet, fitness and stress) that affect your blood pressure.

So if you want to lower your blood pressure (without having to take blood pressure-lowering medications), the best way is to apply a broad approach, using natural home-based remedies to cover all possible causes.effects of sleep on blood pressure

This guide will help you do that. It contains simple and proven strategies to lower your blood pressure and keep it low through easy, effective and enjoyable changes in lifestyle.

It takes you through these in nine easy-to-follow steps. These progressive steps are based on the principle that positive incremental change is always best in health matters, and each chapter will take you further along the road of greater vigour and peace of mind (and a healthy blood pressure).

Choose between a wide range of delicious foods that reduce your blood pressure. Include a number of mental and physical exercises in your schedule for both relaxation and invigoration (including plenty tips on sleeping soundly).

 

Some references:

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/02/secrets-to-a-good-night-sleep.aspx

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/christiane-northrup/sleep-a-surprising-way-to_b_431845.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27286872

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uoh-sld042116.php

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14446604.Study_links_lack_of_sleep_to_development_of_cardiovascular_disease/

 

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally: Step 9

2 comments

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally - The Complete 9 Step Guide

This webpage is a companion to Step 9 of our book:
Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

Step 9 discusses the role of stress in high blood pressure and the many different techniques you can use reduce stress and relax more, not just to lower your blood pressure but to improve your quality of life generally. There’s even one simple method which will lower your blood pressure within minutes!
Click here for more information on the book: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

 

Relax… Relaxation for lowering blood pressure

 

We have more information about stress and blood pressure in our article here:
Stress and Hypertension

Dealing with Stress

There are myriad on-line resources for helping you deal with stress, so search around. Here are an article to start you off:
Web MD – More relaxation techniques

How to Relax: Techniques to Reduce Stress

Meditation

There are many resources on-line for meditation too – tips on meditation, guided meditations – and for a range of different approaches to meditation. It won’t be hard to find one that suits you.

About Meditation
How to Meditate: Easy Meditation Techniques for Beginners to Meditate Properly (SoMuchYoga.com)
Wikipedia – Research on meditation

Meditation tips

Meditation tips for beginners (Psychology Today)

Guided Meditations

A guided meditation audio track is available to play here:

More also on: Guided meditation for stress relief (Fragrant Heart)

There’s also a meditation app – with all kinds of guided meditations for different circumstances and situations. Although we haven’t tried it ourselves yet, it has been highly recommended by others: Headspace

Meditation and other activities for mindfulness and relaxation

How to counter the physiological effects of stress (Psychology Today) – explains what’s called the ‘relaxation response’ and how to elicit it using a simple form of meditation

The Relaxation Response (Mindful Medicine) – a good and simple explanation of how our bodies become stressed and how to induce relaxation, with a few suggestions of different methods you can use

 

Progressive Muscle Relaxation and Body Scanning

Here are some links for audio guides to progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). Or just search online, have a wee listen and go for the one whose voice you like best.
Guided PMR by Malcolm Huxter

 

Yoga

Good beginner’s guide to yoga and its benefits:
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Yoga

Some poses and stretches that may help with high blood pressure:
Yoga for high blood pressure (Healthline.com)

 

Have a Laugh

A bit about laughter therapy:
Laughter therapy (The Guardian newspaper)
Laughter Online University – free laughter resources
Laughter Yoga International

Laughter club:
Laughter Online University – Community Laughter Clubs

 

Improve your motivation and mood generally

Some issues to do with your mood, stress levels and sleep quality are related to the regulation of certain brain chemicals and hormones. This article, suggested by a reader of the website, discusses dopamine levels, how they affect your well-being, and how you can improve them:
Boost your dopamine levels

 

Be Well Rested

Have a nap!

More and more research is now showing that taking a daily midday nap is linked with lower blood pressure and better heart health. Napping for up to an hour a day seems to be best, but even if you can’t manage a nap every day, taking a nap even occasionally may help.

 

Other things which reduce stress and increase being at ease

Think about how you think

There are a wealth of self-help resources online with psychological tips and guidance on dealing with stress, as well as information on finding a psychologist or therapist if you think you could benefit from more one-on-one advice or support.

Below is information on a few tried and tested approaches which have been successfully used to reduce stress, including Cognitive Behavour Therapy and Mindfulness approaches to stress reduction.

This free e-book may also be a good starting point. It’s a 17 page report which identifies 7 ways of thinking and acting that make us likely to feel stressed, then goes on to suggest ways to overcome these stress-inducing approaches and take a more relaxing attitude towards yourself, life and living.

Just click here to download it for free: 7 Mistakes that Lead to Stress

 

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

About CBT:
Patient.info – about CBT

CBT self-help resources:
Self Help CBT (this section is specifically about stress: Self Help – CBT and stress)

 

CBT practitioners and services:

UK:
CBT therapist.com

US:
National Association of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapists

Australia:
CBT Australia

 

Mindfulness approaches to stress reduction

Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a program developed at the University of Massachusetts but other institutes and practitioners also use elements of it:
Wikipedia – MBSR

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is similar to CBT in some ways but draws from mindfulness approaches in focusing more on accepting our difficult experiences, emotions and reactions rather than changing them – based on the sense that it’s lack of acceptance of our experiences and ourselves that can be at the root of a lot of our stress.

This article is quite in-depth, but does have good summaries of the main elements of ACT:
Psychology Today – ACT

Eating (and drinking) well

Mood-boosting foods?

And here are a few resources to investigate:

WebMD – Food, Mood and Serotonin – a brief summary of food, mood and serotonin
Psychology Today – Carbohydrates and Serotonin – thorough explanation of how food affects serotonin production, following with advice on how this affects weight gain and loss
Mark’s Daily Apple – serotonin boosters –  one man’s take on foods and activities which boost your mood

 

Send us your ideas and suggestions

If there are other websites, resources or products you’ve found useful and you think would be useful to others, please email them to us and we’ll include them: simon [at] highbloodpressurebegone.com

 

relaxation for lowering blood pressure - read our guideNOTE: This page is designed to be a companion page to Step 9 of our guide, ‘Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally’. As such, it only contains supplementary resources rather than being a full discussion of stress and blood pressure and the various methods of reducing both.
For more information on relaxation for lowering blood pressure, you can further browse this website or, of course, buy the guide..!
Click here for details: Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

 

 

Laughing and Blood Pressure – What’s Going On?

Leave a comment

laughing and blood pressureLaughing and blood pressure – it’s a serious subject. Does laughing lower your blood pressure or raise it? This is no laughing matter for those with high blood pressure…

Funnily enough, laughing raises and lowers your blood pressure. Sounds like a bad joke? Read on.

 

What’s the relationship between laughing and blood pressure?

Basically, the relationship between laughing and blood pressure varies depending on how often you’re laughing.

Laughing briefly raises your blood pressure while you’re laughing. But if you laugh regularly – we’re talking deep belly laughs here, not polite chuckles – it can actually lower your blood pressure in general. In other words, regular laughing lowers blood pressure even when you’re not laughing.

Sounds funny? Well, several studies are now demonstrating the mental and physical benefits of laughing. A Japanese study of middle-aged men and women who attended regular sessions of laughter yoga experienced significant reductions in blood pressure. The laughing sessions lowered blood pressure  immediately after a laughter session. And after doing a laughter session weekly for three months, their average blood pressure readings were lower too.

In other words, the effect of regular laughing seemed to persist for some time.

A similar effect was found in stressed Indian information technology-workers, with blood pressure drops of around 6 mm/Hg after just a few weeks of laughter sessions.

 

How does laughter lower blood pressure?

How laughter lowers blood pressure involves a few factors.

Firstly, laughing is excellent stress relief. And since stress is often at least a partial cause of many people’s high blood pressure, this is significant.

When you get stressed, your body release stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol directly acts on the walls (the lining) of the blood vessels, causing them to contract. And the narrower your blood vessels, the greater the pressure of the blood against the vessel walls. Cortisol also makes the heart beat faster, further raising blood pressure.

So how does laughing lower blood pressure? Well it helps to counteract this physical response to stress.

According to the “Clown Doctors” of Australia’s Humour Foundation,

Laughter reduces the production of stress hormones, not only during the time of laughter but also for some time after. Laughter also works the muscles, leading to an initial rise in blood pressure followed by a more sustained drop. Blood vessels dilate and an increased amount of oxygen enters the circulation due to deeper breathing. The ‘heartier’ the laugh, the better – laughing 15-20 minutes a day is good for heart health.

Even just watching funny videos has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), raise endorphin levels (‘feel good hormones’), and improve blood flow in the arteries.

Researchers emphasise that the most benefits come from real hearty belly laughs lasting for a minute or so – a polite chuckle or two isn’t quite enough. Struggling to find enough humour in your daily life though? No worries. Here are some tried-and-tested ways to have a good laugh. Why not get the most out of the beneficial relationship of laughing and blood pressure?!

 

How to laugh more to lower your blood pressure

To start off, Dr Peter Spitzer (aka Dr Fruit-Loop), Medical Director of the Humour Foundation recommends the following ways to laugh more:

• Look for opportunities to introduce humour

• Watch comedy DVDs and shows

• Go to comedy clubs…or form your own

• Listen to comedy and laugh whilst driving

• Spend less time with overly serious people

• Spend more time playing

• Connect with funny people

• Visit toy and magic shops

• When all else fails, don’t take yourself too seriously; just take the opportunity to laugh at yourself and enjoy

• Tell your doctor you’re laughing more these days. 

However, what if you’re finding even these suggestions difficult to follow? Or what if you’re able to find your life gently humorous, but are just needing more of those deep belly laughs.  If this is the case, then laughter yoga may be just the thing.

 

Laughter yoga, laughter therapy and laughter clubs

You’re joking, right? Laughter yoga? Actually it’s no joke. And actually, it turns out you don’t even need to find something funny in order to start laughing.

‘Laughter yoga’ or ‘laughter therapy’ was developed by an Indian doctor, Madan Kataria, and works on the principle that the body can’t differentiate between fake and real laughter.

So if you force yourself to laugh, at some point your body takes over and you start laughing for real. The advantage of this is that you don’t need to feel happy or amused to initiate and benefit from a good belly laugh.

Laughter yoga combines body-triggered laughter with deep breathing, and the social contact of being in a group, to get people laughing deeply for extended periods. As well as being healthy, laughter yoga groups or clubs are a lot of fun.

There are now over six thousand laughter clubs (mostly free) in over sixty countries, proving laughter yoga is not something to be taken lightly…

Click here for some links to find (or start) a laughter club near you (scroll down to the “Have a laugh” section): Laughing resources

 

Beyond laughing and blood pressure – there’s more you can do…

Laughing of course is not the only way to lower your blood pressure, although it’s a damn fine start. By the way, that last link to laughing resources, above, contains information on relaxation techniques too. Whether or not you tend to be stressed or anxious, relaxing more deeply is a powerful aspect of lowering blood pressure.

As well as relaxing, there are a lot of other activities you can do to lower your blood pressure. And there are also many many things you can eat and drink which have beneficial blood pressure-reducing effects.

To find out about all of these, have a look at our book – Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

lower your blood pressure naturally with diet, exercise and relaxation - and garlicIt’s a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide to lowering blood pressure the natural way – i.e., without pharmaceutical medications. (Although if you already take these, natural methods of lowering blood pressure can help you lower your blood pressure further.)

Each step leads you through a different set of things you can do to lower your blood pressure. You can just take each step at your own pace – one a week or one a month or more. And gradually bring your blood pressure down and keep it down.

This doesn’t have to involve undue suffering either. It’s not about denial but about introducing good foods, drinks, and enjoyable activities into your life, which will improve your general health and well-being too. You can still drink alcohol and you can eat more dark chocolate.

 

Laughing and blood pressure – references and more information

The Humour Foundation – Laughter Lowers Blood Pressure: https://www.humourfoundation.com.au/resources/seriously-funny-medicine/62-laughter-lowers-blood-pressure.html

Music and laughter and blood pressure – University of Maryland study:
https://umm.edu/news-and-events/news-releases/2008/joyful-music-may-promote-heart-health

Music and laughter and blood pressure – University of Osaka study:
https://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20110325/music-and-laughter-may-help-lower-blood-pressure

Laughter and memory: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/laughter-can-improve-short-term-memory/

Health benefits of laughing – Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/laughing-may-help-ease-blood-pressure-boost-mood-and-enrich-health-in-other-ways/2011/10/18/gIQAq8Y5CM_story.html

Laughing and pain thresholds: https://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/09/19/rspb.2011.1373

Effects of watching comedy videos versus depressing documentaries: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/151941.php

Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure?

Leave a comment

Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure? is a guest post: This article by Madeleine Taylor is originally published at SundayScaries.

does CBD oil lower blood pressure (it's relaxing)

High blood pressure is a serious condition that currently affects thousands of adults in America. Statistics show that 33% of adults who are above the age of 20 struggle with high blood pressure and that figure reaches a whopping 66% for those in their mid-60 and over. It goes without saying that high blood pressure is becoming a nasty rising trend, which is only going to worsen if changes to the system aren’t made. While there is already a substantial amount of research into hypertension, a succinct cure is yet to be found. And, thanks to the rise of natural medicines, including medical marijuana, many people now suspect that cannabis-based products could provide the answers we have been looking for with regards to lowering blood pressure in modern society.

Hypertension doesn’t immediately strike us as a fatal condition when you compare it to aggressive illnesses like cancer of epilepsy. However, high blood pressure has been coined as a silent killer in the medical industry, based on the reality that hypertension is often not accompanied by any warning symptoms. This dreaded condition will put you at a higher risk of having a heart attack, heart failure, strokes, and even kidney disease. It is a condition that must be taken seriously in order to avoid its fatal repercussions.

 

What Are the Symptoms of Hypertension?

While there are some medical conditions in existence that can be diagnosed at home, high blood pressure is not one of them. It is virtually impossible to tell if your blood pressure is too high without experiencing other negative symptoms and by that point, it could be too late. You should always schedule regular check-ups with your physician to monitor blood pressure and you should make an appointment at your local medical center as soon as possible if you start noticing any of the following symptoms:

  • A more severe headache than normal
  • Feeling permanently tired
  • Problems with your vision
  • An irregular heartbeat
  • Difficulty breathing

 

How Can CBD help?

The big question is: “Does CBD oil lower blood pressure?” CBD is a natural that is relatively new to the mainstream market. It is known to help with chronic pain and cancer-related pain, severe diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. One of its primary uses, however, is to manage and lower the symptoms of anxiety and stress disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder; therefore, lowering your blood pressure. When you feel calm, you are able to relax, so your blood pressure responds accordingly and decreases in time with your heart rate. Cannabidiol is a natural vasodilator; it will help ensure that your blood is flowing easily and smoothly. A particularly nasty symptom of hypertension is that it can cause irreversible damage to your arteries and heart. You then tend to end up with conditions like coronary heart disease. Fortunately, CBD has proven to be effective to alleviate the negative consequences of affected blood vessels.

 

The Benefits of Taking CBD for High Blood Pressure

As time passes, more states are moving to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes and other derivatives from the cannabis plant and that means more people across the U.S. are using cannabis-based products like CBD hemp oil to treat and reduce the effects of a wide range of ailments. CBD contains some incredibly unique properties, which all contribute to making it a very effective and in-demand alternative medication for patients worldwide.

Without a doubt, one of the primary benefits to consider when you use CBD to lower blood pressure is that it not only targets your hypertension, it also works to lower anxiety, relieve insomnia, and heal any pain you might have in your body. The average American who suffers from high blood pressure is usually prescribed a range of pharmaceuticals to overcome the multitude of symptoms that come with hypertension. And over time all of these toxic medicines can have negative consequences to their overall health, so this is the primary driving force behind people turning to CBD for their health issues, as it naturally heals all aspects of hypertension.

CBD specifically lowers high blood pressure in two primary ways:

It Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

When a part of your body becomes swollen and painful, it is referred to as inflammation. Hypertension can cause inflammation and in turn, inflammation causes hypertension. Many patients battling hypertension find that they also have to deal with inflammation and pain on an almost daily basis. CBD is an entirely natural anti-inflammatory, which helps eliminate and soothe any swelling you might have, so by healing your inflammation CBD also causes your blood pressure to lower.

It Reduces Anxiety

Hypertension can often be caused by anxiety and stress and vice versa. Many people are surprised to learn that the reason they feel stressed and anxious is because of high blood pressure. CBD will take care of any anxiety issues by lowering your heart rate and keep you in a calmer state. When your stress levels drop, so does your blood pressure.

 

Ways to Take Cannabis

There are a variety of ways that you can consume CBD in order to experience its potency, including:

Thanks to a variety of ingestion methods, you can try each one until you find a method that suits you best.

Dosage

If you want to enjoy all of the positive benefits of CBD, then you will need to get your dosage right. Dosage is a very individual aspect of CBD, so sometimes what works for one person doesn’t work for another. It is always recommended that you start with a smaller dose and increase it gradually if you feel you need to. You can also consult a holistic physician to get more clarity on the best dose for your needs.

 

Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure? Final Thoughts

Modern society is that it comprises a variety of aspects that result in many of us having busy lifestyles and we always seem to be rushing from A to B. If this culture continues in the same way, even more people will develop hypertension, which is why it is so important to understand all of your treatment options in advance. CBD can be an effective and non-damaging way to treat the symptoms of high blood pressure and gives patients more of a choice with regards to moving forward with treatment.

More Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Taking CBD products can lower your blood pressure, both directly and through helping you be less stressed. With stress being a common cause of high blood pressure, being happier and more relaxed goes a long way to lowering your blood pressure.

As well as taking CBD, there are many other ways you can lower your blood pressure. For a start, what you eat and drink are also crucial. Just a few simple changes to your daily diet can have profound effects on your blood pressure. And there are many different kinds of activities which will reduce your blood pressure. And of course there are quite a few different ways to alleviate stress.

If you’ve researched this a bit already, you’ll know that there’s a lot of information out there on lowering blood pressure naturally. However, to make it easy, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide:

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide

walking and high blood pressure

As the (highly imaginative) title suggests, the guide is arranged into nine steps which you can follow at your own pace. Each step is easy to follow and gives clear guidance on the different aspects of lowering blood pressure naturally.

There are tips on different kinds of exercise to lower blood pressure. (Even gentle walking can help, and there’s also a blood pressure-lowering exercise that you can do on your sofa.)

There’s loads of info on good foods and drinks for lowering blood pressure, along with a few recipes.

And we outline a host of techniques to de-stress.

The guide is designed to be easy to follow and to help you live a healthier and happier life. Lowering your blood pressure doesn’t have to be about denial. There are enough tasty foods, refreshing drinks, enjoyable activities and relaxing practices to keep you going – with lower blood pressure – for a lifetime…