Recently I had the pleasure to sit next to a very nice older gentleman on a long flight from Newark to Munich. We quickly began to discuss everything under the stars and one subject that came up was his high blood pressure.
I told him about my High Blood Pressure Exercise Program and how effective it is. He was interested but when I began explaining how the exercises work, he was skeptical and said his blood pressure was not stress related.
Pretty much everyone in his family on both sides going back several generations had hypertension. In fact, his father had died of a heart attack at age 53.
I’ve heard this objection so many times that I was not surprised at all. After all, there are so many things that can cause high blood pressure: high cholesterol, genetic factors, bad diet and most of the time … no known cause.
Although everyone ‘and their brother’ seems to be complaining about too much stress or worries, not everyone who has high blood pressure lives a stressful live.
So how can exercises that seem to be mostly focusing on relaxation help with non stress-related hypertension?
Let’s first look at what hypertension really is:
You see, everyone has blood pressure higher than the recommended 120/80 level from time to time. It’s actually quite normal. For example, you may be rushing to get somewhere, running around or having a fight with the boss. It’s a healthy response from the body to deal with a situation that needs more energy than normal.
It’s kind of like pushing down on the gas pedal when passing a truck on the highway…
If everything is healthy in your body, your blood pressure will quickly drop down once you’ve completed the task that needed the extra load of energy. It’s only a problem if the blood pressure stays high throughout most of the day.
But let’s check out what happens if, for example, you have a high level of cholesterol built up in your arteries.
Since the arteries are narrower than normal (due to the cholesterol built up), the heart has to pump with more force than before to get enough blood flow around the body to deal with the need for extra energy (to get to the store in time for example).
This creates more pressure in the arteries. Arteries already under stress have a hard time taking this added pressure. So to protect themselves from the pressure, the arteries begin to harden. It’s like a blister under your feet when you walk around bare-footed. And just like a blister, the hardened arteries tend to crack. In those cracks, more cholesterol builds up and creates even worse pressure.
Now, the heart has this function of normalizing pressure. So when you have to pep it up the heart has a tough time delivering enough blood. If an organ could have an internal dialogue it would be something like “okay, now I have to keep this up all the time - higher pressure is normal”.
This is similar to a person living in a hot place getting used to the heat and feeling it’s normal. I grew up in Iceland. The hottest summer day is 76F/25C. Now I consider that just a normal thing and anything less than that in the summer cold.
Your body functions in the same way with blood pressure. Little by little it begins to think 140/100 is normal due to the overwhelming pressure in the arteries from the cholesterol buildup.
What the Focused Break (in the Blood Pressure Exercises ) does is relax your body and mind in a specific way and drop your blood pressure for a few minutes at the same time. Since you’re relaxed, there is no need for the extra blood load to push on the arteries. Therefore, the arterial walls are not under attack.
As you do the exercises, the heart begins to normalize again with the lower pressure. Because the arteries are not pressed, they begin to soften again and the cracks begin to heal. Little by little, the cholesterol buildup in the arteries gets absorbed by the body.
(Yes, the body does absorb the cholesterol when the arteries soften. Not all doctors will agree but there are endless examples of this).
The negative hypertension process has been reversed.
I explained all of this to my newly found traveling pal. He was still skeptical. So I told what I tell everyone. “Just try it.” I pulled out my blood pressure monitor (never leave home without it). His readying was 160/105. Then I loaned him my iPod and played the first exercise. He then did exercises two and three. We took his blood pressure again: 135/88. Amazed, he said that was the lowest number he had seen for years.
When we parted, I gave him my card and told him to keep on practicing.
Yesterday, I received an email from him. It has been a week since the flight.
The first thing he did when he woke up from the jet lag nap that day was visit my website and order my exercises. He did each of the exercises every day and his blood pressure steadily dropped, day by day.
The reason he emailed me was that his blood pressure was down to 119/76 - well within the healthy range.
He did not change his diet at all and he swore his blood pressure had been 100% genetically caused.
He loved the blood pressure program so much that now he’s working the Weight Loss Breeze program . I can’t wait to hear about
