Yoga Can Reduce Hypertension, Test Says

Most visits to a physician's office are for hypertension or high blood pressure. In America alone, there are 50 million people suffering from hypertension. Unfortunately, despite these numbers, there is no really adequate treatment. This leads to hypertension being the highest common risk factor for stroke, heart failure and kidney disease and there is no indication that it is going to get any better in the near future.

Meanwhile, 42% of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine techniques for their health care. These products cost the American public more money than they spent for doctors serviced in all of 1997. And all of these costs are out of pocket.

Close to 8% of the population who suffer from hypertension, almost 3million people, are estimated to have tried mind-body techniques at least once as an alternative treatment for hypertension.

In mind and body medicine the patient used behavioral methods to supplement to mind's own capacity to affect the symptoms. There are various different techniques in mind and body medicine like meditation, prayer, mental healing and even such activities as art, music and dance. Back in 2002, there were approximately 30 million patients who used techniques such as meditation and yoga and an additional 10 million who used yoga alone and 25% found them to be very helpful.

Up until now, there has been very little research done for the purpose of distinguishing between practices that are really safe and effective and those that are popular because of creative marketing and just plain, old stories, or what some would call old wives tales.

That is until now. Researchers have conducted a review of all of the methods with the aim being to judge each one's efficiency. The researchers looked at the changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure from before the test and after.

The mind body techniques they used were meditation, yoga and guided imagery, either by themselves or in combination with conventional treatment. There were some who only got conventional treatment and some who had no intervention at all.