HOW TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE NATURALLY

Part 20 : Stress

We all face challenges in every day life and if those challenges seem more than we are able to cope with we become anxious and tense and we are said to suffer from stress.

Stress forces your heart to beat harder and pushes your blood pressure up, at least temporarily as the hormones you produce when anxious or tense cause your blood vessels to narrow.

It's not 100% certain whether stress has a long term harmful effect on your blood vessels, however a study of 300 men in the US found that those reporting high levels of stress had blood pressure which was raised by the equivalent of 20 years in age.

Researchers have also found that those who feel less in control of their lives have a tendency to experience higher blood pressure than those who take life calmly.

So if you have high blood pressure it makes sense to avoid getting wound up about everything, to take time to relax every day and to learn some practical skills for coping with situations you tend to come across which make you feel that you have no control over what happens to you.

Different people respond to the same circumstances with different levels of anxiety and what one person may see as stressful doesn't affect another at all. Stress is therefore a feeling or reaction rather than something which happens to us. And it arises directly from our thoughts.

This means that we can increase our tolerance to everyday challenges by what we say to ourselves about an event. If we allow ourselves to dwell on how terrible something is and describe it as "a disaster" then we are opening ourselves up to more stress than if we take a practical approach to solving the situation. Often the little things which wind us up are not so very bad and will matter little in a week, a month or a year from now. Try and put your annoyance with any situation into perspective.

If you're a worrier, practise saying to yourself (a phrase I read one time in a book by Susan Jeffers, I think) "Whatever happens, I'll handle it" because it's true, no matter how bad something is, you always do handle it, no matter how painful. And you come out the other side all the stronger for having survived whatever the situation was.

If you suffer from everyday stress

• avoid getting overwhelmed by trying to take on too much. Set yourself a smaller number of task each day rather than trying to clear items from your huge "To Do" list.
• If you are given too much to do at work, have a word with your boss about your workload.
• Leave yourself ample time to get things done so you are not always up against a deadline or rushing because you're late.
• Don't overschedule yourself so much that you have no time just to relax or to spend time on your favourite pastime or hobby.
• And make time for the people in your life. There's no point working all the hours in the day to give them a better lifestyle if you never get to enjoy their company.

Exercise, which is such a benefit if you have high blood pressure in so many ways, is also great for helping with stress. Aerobic activity in particular produces feel good hormones which help counteract the ones you produce when you are tressed and anxious.  Also, it's easier to take your mind off your worries if you are concentrating on where to put your feet as you learn to dance or to take your mind off a frustrating situation by pulling out the weeds from your garden. 

Whatever you do, don't get into the habit of trying to relieve your stress by smoking, drinking too much alcohol or overeating junk food. All of these things are damaging when you have high blood pressure.  

In future parts of this series we will look at other ways of combatting stress which are particularly good for those with high blood pressure and can bring about a reduction of 5 to 10 mmHg with none of the side effects of medication.

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