There are natural ways to help lower your blood pressure.  These are mind-body interventions, which can include autogenic training, biofeedback, Chinese medicines and yoga.

These treatments have been found to reduce high blood pressure when compared to other forms of exercise or no exercise.

Woman Doing Yoga on Beach

First, autogenic training is a technique used for stress reduction and relaxation.  Normally, it involves a series of sessions in which people learn how to control breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature.

People learn six exercises that each have a certain posture, concentration without a goal, imagination, and verbal cues.  Each exercise is learned by watching a teacher demonstrate it or by reading a description.  It requires regular practice on your own to learn to use this as a relaxation technique.

Biofeedback is another technique in which people learn how to gain control over internal body processes that normally occur involuntarily, such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and skin temperature.

Biofeedback is primarily used for high blood pressure, migraines, tension headaches, chronic pain, and urinary incontinence.

There are different types of biofeedback, including thermal feedback, which measures skin temperature and electrodermal activity feedback, which uses a probe that responds to sweat; along with direct blood pressure feedback or electromyography (EMG), which measures muscle tension. Each of these can be effective techniques.

Another method is Ayurveda, which is the traditional medicine of India.  Using Ayurveda, high blood pressure is treated according to each person’s dosha or constitutional type, including their body care, mental being and spiritual refinement. There are many herbs used with this method of treatment for many different conditions, beyond high blood pressure.

Finally in traditional Chinese medicine, high blood pressure is often attributed to a problem with the circulation of vital energy (qi) in the body. Chinese medicine practitioners believe that depression, anger, obesity, and high intake of fatty foods are some of the causative factors.  The Chinese medical method recommends a combination of acupuncture and herbs. The foods thought to have medicinal purposes that may help high blood pressure include water chestnuts, turnips, honey, Chinese celery, hawthorn berries, and mung beans, most of which are common to Chinese culture.

And lastly, emotions also play a role in our health.  In using some of the above techniques, you can help to improve your overall well being and lower your blood pressure.