As Everyday Health reports, high blood pressure, or hypertension, affects almost half of all American adults. Without treatment or attention of some kind, hypertension, sometimes interlinked with stress, anxiety, and depression, can play a part in causing weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and eventually even stroke or heart attack. High blood pressure is usually managed with antihypertensive medication, when appropriate, as well as lifestyle changes.
Leena Guptha, DO, PCOM’s Academic Dean of Graduate Studies, suggests integrative therapy, which “is about blending the best of conventional therapy like medication with the best of other therapies like yoga, meditation, and aerobic exercise. With blood pressure, it’s always a good idea to try natural approaches first and then add on prescription medication if needed.”
Recent studies, linked from the Everyday Health article, have found evidence to support the use of practices such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing, and biofeedback to help lower blood pressure. To find out more about these practices, as well as using insurance to support integrative therapies, check out the full article.