Validating... 
You’ve most likely heard yoga is good for you because it keeps your joints limber and your muscles long and lean, and helps to calm your breathing and quiet the mind, much like mediation does. But a new study is suggesting yoga may have an additional health benefit: lowering high blood pressure.
The study, led by Dr. Debbie Cohen of the University of Pennsylvania, followed 58 women and men between the ages of 38 and 62 for a period of six months. Though researchers couldn’t pinpoint the exact mechanics or cause-and-effect relationship, they found that doing yoga two to three times a week was linked to an average drop in blood pressure readings from 133/80 to 130/77.
Compare this to the small drop from 134/83 to 132/82 among people who ate a special diet but did not do yoga. Also, researchers were a bit surprised to see that doing yoga along with a special diet did not outperform doing yoga alone. Clearly, yoga was the key.
“This study confirms many people’s feelings that exercise may be useful in the control of hypertension,” said Dr. Howard Weintraub, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Weintraub was not connected to the new study. Based on the study’s findings, “yoga would be a useful adjunct in the lowering of blood pressure in certain populations,” he said.
Other medical experts have chimed in on the study, concluding that the ancient Indian practice of yoga may ease hypertension.
“Yoga, along with deep breathing exercises, meditation and inner reflection, is a good adjunctive and integrative cardiovascular approach to better health, including lowering blood pressure, as this data suggests,” said Dr. David Friedman, chief of Heart Failure Services at the North Shore-LIJ Plainview Hospital, in Plainview, N.Y.
Tips for Beginning a Yoga Practice
After reading about this study, you may want to start incorporating yoga into your weekly exercise regimen (you do have one, right?). If you live in an urban setting, you should have no problem finding a multitude of classes in your area. For those people who live in rural parts of the country, you’ll find many online courses and DVDs available to teach you.
Like any new endeavor, yoga may seem overwhelming to you at first and you may find yourself getting frustrated. In an effort to help get you going and keep you on track, here are a few yoga tips:
There’s No Such Thing as Being “Good At Yoga”
Yoga isn’t like painting or singing where you’re either good at it or not, yoga is actually a practice, a form of movement that is used to strengthen the body while quieting the mind. So get the idea of being good or bad at yoga poses out of your mind. Don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself and just begin your practice with a sense of joy.
Make a Commitment to Your Practice and Yourself
Many people buy yoga pants and a yoga mat and then never go to yoga class. They talk about it a lot, but they never take action. Do yourself and your high blood pressure a favor and commit to yoga, even if it’s only for 3 months. This will give you enough time to see how much better you feel and if your BP numbers have come down.
Take it Nice and Easy
When you first begin you will see others in your class (or on the DVD or Youtube video) that are able to do some beautiful and amazing poses and hold them for what seems like ever. Know that when they were starting out like you, they couldn’t do these poses.
The point here is, don’t attempt to do something your body is simply not able to do yet. Listen to your body and ease your way into the practice. And don’t get upset with your body because it is not doing what you’d like. Stay with it and you will feel your body loosening and getting more limber each time.
Are you sitting there reading this thinking, “There’s no way I’m doing yoga. I’m just not a “yoga person?” Well, what if there were another natural and easy way for you to lower your blood pressure that didn’t require bending your body into various poses or the need for traditional medications that can cause nasty side effects? What if you could get to the root cause of your high blood pressure instead of just constantly masking the symptoms? Wouldn’t it be great to get your health and energy back?
On the following page one doctor will share some information with you that drug companies don’t want you to know about, and you’ll learn how one of her patients used her method to lower his blood pressure naturally and simply from 200 over 100 to 126 over 71 and all within one week.
Sound too good to be true?
Watch the video on the next page to learn this doctor’s method and get your blood pressure numbers down in as little as three days.
Leave a Reply