High blood pressure—or hypertension—is among the most common health conditions in the UK. Almost 50% of adults have hypertension, yet many people don’t even know they have it. Blood pressure is the force your heart exercises against the walls of your blood vessels. If your heart is healthy and your blood vessels are flexible, only a tiny amount of energy is needed to circulate blood throughout your body. But if your heart is strained or your blood vessels become rigid and inflexible, the heart must pump harder to circulate blood. The result is more stress on the heart and deterioration of the walls of your blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other dangerous health conditions.
Lifestyle changes top the list of steps you can take to improve or prevent hypertension—and research shows that yoga can play a critical role in reducing high blood pressure.
Yoga may support lowering your blood pressure, primarily if you practice frequently. For example, a 2019 review and analysis of earlier data published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that people (most overweight, middle-aged adults with high blood pressure) who did yoga for an hour about five times a week for thirteen weeks saw significant reductions in their blood pressure. The improvements were even more significant when the practice included breathing techniques and meditation.
A 2020 study examined the effect of a one-hour yoga class on the flexibility of the arteries. The more flexible your blood vessels, the less pressure is required for blood flow and the lower your risk of hypertension. Researchers found people had more flexible arteries after practising yoga.
Yoga inversions can be problematic as they cause the heart to work hard to pump against gravity, increasing blood pressure. The more inverted the torso, the greater the intrathoracic pressure, hence the higher the blood pressure.
Inversions include asanas like:
Downard-Facing Dog
Standing Forward Bend
Legs Up The Wall
Headstand
Plow
Any position where the head is lower than the heart.
However, medical advice for people whose blood pressure is controlled by medication is to exercise and do other healthy activities that any person with normal blood pressure would do. Therefore, it seems sensible that you can safely introduce inversions if you do so gradually. In addition, inversions trigger several reflexes that temporarily reduce blood pressure so frequent practice may improve your high blood pressure treatment. However, anybody whose high blood pressure is not under control should bring the pressure down first by other means before practising inversions.
In my classes, I always provide alternatives for inversions, or we use props/the wall to achieve the same feelings in the body. We always look at what each asana feels like rather than striving for a particular outward shape.
Yoga as a Means of Supporting Hypertension
Stress is a significant cause of high blood pressure, and yoga is a beautiful way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, so regular practice can be beneficial. As well as asana, meditation and pranayama offer physical and mental benefits and can be woven into everyday life.
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