Lower Blood Pressure Naturally with Yoga

Nov 06 2009 Published by admin under Yoga

If you want to lower your blood pressure naturally consider trying yoga. When looking for high blood pressure remedies you have to open yourself to all the options. Stress reduction is one of them.

Yoga is a method that has been used for thousands of years.

The practice of yoga is ancient, but it could have an incredible effect for those living in the 21st century as a high blood pressure treatment. However, many people are uncertain of how (or even whether) to attempt this exercise. Here, we’ll explore some of the common myths and questions surrounding yoga, and why you should definitely pursue it if you suffer high blood pressure symptoms.

How to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally using Yoga

“Isn’t yoga just for young, flexible people?”

Answer: Absolutely not! Yoga can be performed by persons of all ages and abilities. Even if you are wheelchair bound, you can still practice some of the yoga positions from the waist up. And because yoga has a mental component, you can even do some meditating techniques in bed to lower your blood pressure symptoms. All that you really need is an open mind and the willingness to try an alternative or complimentary high blood pressure treatment.

“I like extreme exercises. Isn’t yoga kind of dull?”

Answer: Many people assume that yoga is just sitting on the floor cross-legged and meditating. However, there are differing forms of yoga and some require intense physicality. Therefore, if you’re looking to use yoga to lower blood pressure naturally, then you can usually find a type of yoga practice to fit your general physical fitness level.

“I’ve heard that yoga is a religion. I’m happy with my current religion, so maybe yoga isn’t for me.”

Answer: Though yoga can be performed as a way to attain a religious state, when practiced as an exercise, it has no religious connections. Whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, agnostic, or even atheist, you can use yoga as a high blood pressure treatment. Because it “centers” your body and spirit, it provides you with the means to naturally start to reduce your high blood pressure symptoms.

“My doctor didn’t recommend yoga, so I’m hesitant to try it.”

Answer: By all means, ask your physician about yoga as a possibility if he or she didn’t mention it when you were first diagnosed with high blood pressure. Though most doctors will agree that it’s an excellent way to lower blood pressure, they might not immediately assume it’s something in which you are interested. So the next time you have an appointment, feel free to bring it up.

“I don’t belong to a health club, and I don’t feel like I want to join. So I guess I’ll never do yoga…”

Answer: Don’t allow your lack of gym membership to stop you from getting the advantages of yoga! There are plenty of books, DVDs, and articles describing the practice consequently, you can lower your blood pressure s in the comfort of your living room!

Best of all, yoga can be performed anywhere, so if you go on vacation you can always do it in your hotel room or even on the beach.

If you don’t have a facility nearby that has yoga sessions or you feel more comfortable doing it at home, you can find programs online.

You don’t have to take hours to start a Yoga program, start slow, the main thing is reduce stress and you’ll lower your blood pressure naturally.

Combine this with other lifestyle changes and you’ll be well on your way to better health.

Look at Yoga for Beginners, lower your blood pressure and live happier in good health.

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Vitamins for High Blood Pressure

Nov 05 2009 Published by admin under Vitamins

There are some foods that provide vitamins for high blood pressure and then you have vitamins in a supplement form. With the quality of food these days it’s almost better to take vitamins that are manufactured. The caveat here is Buy Quality.

There are a few factors you need to consider when taking vitamins. The first and most important is digestion. No matter if your taking drugs, natural foods, vitamins or any other supplement, if you can’t digest it properly then it’s a waste. By this I mean your not getting the full benefit from it.

Studies show that more than 30% of what we digest never gets into our system. It passes right through us, it ends up in the toilet which is where the money you paid for it goes too.

This doesn’t mean all is lost, still a decent percentage of the vitamins get through, but I just wanted you to be aware of that fact. You can do things to improve your absorption rates which will help with curing your high blood pressure.

This is one reason why people think that vitamins don’t work, it’s partially because a lot of them don’t make it into your system. It takes a lot longer to have a positive affect and not to mention the waste of money part too.

What Vitamins Have an Affect on High Blood Pressure?

Vitamin A – is a fat-soluble vitamin that, like vitamin E, works primarily in the lipid, or fat, tissues of your body. Vitamin A prevents LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) building up of plague in your arteries.

Vitamin C – protects your arteries and decreases the risk of heart disease and hypertension. It prevents the generation of free radicals which damage artery walls. It helps repair damage to the arteries, preventing the deposit of plaque at the site of injury. It also helps elevate levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).

Vitamin E – is the most active antioxidant in the fatty cells of your body. It reduces the risk of heart disease and hypertension by protecting your arteries from the effects of oxidized LDL cholesterol.

Potassium – even though it’s not a vitamin I include it because it’s easy to get and has an affect on high blood pressure. Bananas, potatoes and milk are good sources for getting potassium.

Magnesium – again, is not a vitamin but does benefit you and is a supplement easily found. People require between 300 and 400 milligrams of magnesium each day. Salmon, leafy green vegetables, whole grains and nuts are good sources of magnesium.

This gives you a good base to start from. I choose the easiest vitamins and supplements to find which give you the most benefits for high blood pressure. Now we need to touch on the subject of quality.

We always want to stress that your Doctor be informed of any changes to your diet. This includes adding vitamins or supplements. There may be factors in your medical history, especially with high blood pressure, that could affect what you take. Although vitamins have never killed anyone, you’ll still want to run it past your Doctor.

As you might notice, the choice of vitamins is a large as the taxes taken from your check. It’s a big business that produces some bad products that are passed on to you.

The two things to watch for in vitamins is processing and fillers. A cheap vitamin  C may have 500 mg of vitamin C in it, but how much vitamin C gets into your system after you break it down.

As far as processing, it’s a lot faster to use heat to make vitamins than it is using a cold process. Using heat destroys some of the potency which means less benefit to you. The question remains, how do you know what to buy? The answer is buy what is known.

There are certain companies that are certified and adhere to a good practice seal, this is GMP certified. The simplest way to go about this is just buy from a reputable know company. Here’s a few that provide quality vitamins.

  • Roex
  • Garden of Life
  • Centrum Silver Brand
  • Vita-Logic
  • Natures Way

Your next step, if your not sure, is to check with consumer labs. You can’t be more sure than to have a lab report with the breakdown of what’s in that brand. Unfortunately, there are a lot of contaminated ingredients found in vitamins which would not benefit your high blood pressure problem. One containment I came across was lead. Again, with quality vitamins this is not a concern.

So we now have another remedy to deal with high blood pressure naturally, just make sure the vitamins are quality and be patient especially if your absorption is not 100%.

If you like shopping around, there’s plenty of manufactures to choose from.

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Herbal Teas to Lower Blood Pressure

Nov 04 2009 Published by admin under Herbal Teas

Herbal teas have been used for thousands of years to cleanse your body. You can now discover what kinds will help lower your blood pressure. Many teas are a cleanser, in the case of your body it’s an antioxidant. Your arteries get constricted for a variety of reasons, a good antioxidant is vitamin C and E.

If your high blood pressure is severe, see your Doctor. You may need a drug to tide you over until you learn more about lowering your blood pressure.

Lets Look at some Herbal Teas that Lower Blood Pressure

First, you must understand that herbals do not work like prescription drugs. Most prescription drugs are aimed at alleviating symptoms or acute conditions. Few, if any, address core issues which underly and prolong the chronic condition in the body.

It can take anywhere from weeks to 6 months for herbal remedies to work. Building up the body is different than drugs that treat the symptoms. This misunderstanding has caused many people to think that herbal teas don’t work.

Buying quality is the most beneficial, but does quality mean the highest priced?

Herbs come from all parts of the world, how there grown, how there processed and how there packaged all contributes to quality. Chinese medicine seems to have the history to support the claims that herbal teas work. These teas that lower blood pressure can actually hurt you if your trying to raise your blood pressure. This is why your Doctor needs to be in the loop. Hopefully they are proficient in both medicine and natural practices.

Matching up the right herbs with the condition is a bit more critical than taking supplements. If you concentrate on the blended herbal teas found in your health food store, your chances are lower of having conflicts than if you try mixing the individual herbs themselves. If the milder store blends aren’t strong enough, then a certified herbalist should be consulted. Having said all that lets look at a list of herbs that lower blood pressure.

  • Garlic (Allium sativum)
  • Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
  • Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum)
  • Kelp (Fucus visiculosis)
  • Skullcap (Scutellaria)
  • Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycanthus)
  • Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)
  • Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
  • Burdock (Arctum lappa)
  • Valerian (Valeriana)

As you can see, some of these herbs can be found in your local store. You can make your own herbal teas just by adding any of these herbs to hot water, that’s all tea is. With herbal tea blends they usually add peppermint or some other natural ingredient for flavor.

I know that if you pound a garlic clove and leave it out for 10 minuets, this increases its potency.

Finding a good off the shelf herbal tea is a bit more difficult. The reason is the lower priced store brands use the less potent part of the herb and add fillers to the blend. You’d have to use 20 tea bags to get the same benefit as you would from a good quality herb store. So lets list some reliable places we know delivers quality products.

  • Adagio Teas
  • Traditional Medicines (found in stores) Teas
  • Mountain Rose Herbs (online)
  • Teavana (online – Au Lat Verde Green Tea)
  • Mighty Leaf Teas
  • and The Herbal Tea Search

In general Green and Oolong are good herbal teas for lowering your blood pressure.  The key to extracting the maximum benefits from these teas is the steeping process. Then you might consider the type of pot you use for brewing.

Tetsubin teapots are well suited for brewing green teas like Dragonwell and Kyoto Rice. Often fired with enamel interiors, these long lasting teapots do not impart any flavor, retain heat well and heat evenly. With a metal infuser, the cast-iron teapots are also easy to use and make monitoring the steeping time simple.

Stoneware and ceramic teapots are ideal teapots for everyday use. For example, enjoy your morning cup of tea with whole loose leaf prepared in a teapot using a removable stainless steel infuser or, if no infusion basket is included, a T-Sac paper filter bag. Stoneware and ceramic teapots come in a variety of colors and designs and appeal to many tea drinkers. They can be used to prepare any style of tea including black, oolong, green, white or herbal infusions.

Glass is ideal for retaining heat and brewing flavored teas as the teapot does not retain the tea’s flavor. Germany produces many high quality glass teapots. Glass teapots are also ideal for brewing flowering teas, as you can watch as the tea leaves unfurl before your eyes revealing hidden treasures within and depending upon the tea, its characteristic liquor color.

Quality herbal teas are a great way to lower high blood pressure and maintain good health. Making it part of your daily routine can have long term health benefits. As mentioned, herbs have a more profound affect than supplements and therefore the guidance of your Doctor or a holistic professional is advised. Having a cup of tea doesn’t require a Doctors approval, were talking about using teas in a medicinal sense.

This is just another of natures remedies that you can use for blood pressure problems. There’s plenty of sources online that can provide you with quality herbal teas and they won’t break the bank.

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