Relax, and Lower Your Blood Pressure

There’s no doubt that raised blood pressure requires appropriate medications, in most cases. Of course, lifestyle (more exercise, less calories) can play a big part in the treatment program, but taking one drug is usually necessary, with addition of one or even two more, some time later. That’s why there’s renewed interest in a study from the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Benson-Hendry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Patients in the study had high blood pressure being treated with standard medications, and who agreed to try training in a relaxation technique; the method, called the relaxation response, was first described by Herbert Benson 30 years ago. It involves sitting with eyes closed for 10 to 20 minutes and repeating silently a word or phrase, while breathing slowly and naturally. (If you don’t know what else to say, try “Om”.)

The participants were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of the relaxation technique or 8 weeks of lifestyle modification; there were 61 patients in each group. Patients who achieved a systolic blood pressure below 140 mm Hg or more than 5 mm Hg reduction in systolic pressure over the 8 weeks were then eligible for an 8-week trial of supervised medication elimination.

During the first 8 weeks, systolic pressure decreased on average by 9.4 mm Hg in the relaxation group and 8.8 mm Hg in the lifestyle group; the difference between groups was not significant. Forty-four of the relaxation group and 36 of the lifestyle group were eligible for the second part of the study. Significantly more of the relaxation patients in this part of the study were able to eliminate an anti-hypertensive medication without loss of blood pressure control – in fact, more than 4 times as many as among the lifestyle participants.

Maybe you don’t have high blood pressure. But practicing relaxation is likely to be helpful in combating stress, and thereby a whole raft of stress-related conditions.