Chi Kung and Hypertension

[ToP-fan]

I know there are various "chi" practices that are supposedly good for reducing hypertension........Does anyone know of one paritcular practice which is most effective at dropping blood pressure?........All success stories, advice and experiences welcome!

[thaddeus]

I know there are various "chi" practices that are supposedly good for reducing hypertension........Does anyone know of one paritcular practice which is most effective at dropping blood pressure?........All success stories, advice and experiences welcome!

I think it's irresponsible for anyone to give out medical advice when it concerns life threatening problems. Not sure if you consulted a doctor or not but you definately want to check to make sure you don't have something like diabetes or serious artery problems.

But the quick answer is that anything that relaxes you will lower blood pressure unless you have some physiological problem with producing nitric oxide. So basically just laying down and listening to music will drop blood pressure. Check out Herbert Benson for the science part.

But seriously get checked out first..

T

[ToP-fan]

Thanks Thaddeus...........I understand your concern about the disposing of advice or medical info........I am just borderline hypertensive and am on 1 medication........I would eventually like to get off of the medication by lowering the BP through natural means..........diet, exercise, meditation etc. and was wondering if anybody had success lowering it through the chi kung route.

[liminal_luke]

Hi Top-fin....Once went to a chi-gung class that was specificially for lowering blood pressure. I'm not an expert but glad to pass along what I heard. Story is that high blood pressure is often associated with the chi going up to the head, and not being able to come down again. Any chi-gung movement that guides the chi down the body, preferably all the way to the kidney 1 point at the bottom of the feet and from there into the earth, is good. Here are some ideas:

(1) Try standing and slowly raising your hands up to your head and then lowering them down over the body like a standing triple warmer healing sound. Ok, to actually touch your body to lower the chi if you like. Might make either the triple warmer sound or heart sound. Pause at the bottom and mentally guide the chi down your legs and into the earth.

(2) Lie down and guide chi from bottoms of feet to waist level (not as high as the lower dan tien) and then back again. This one has to be done a long time to get energy down into the legs.

(3) Repeatedly rub sole of foot over kidney 1 point toward toes. About 400 vigorous rubs per foot.

(4) Rub up and down across face vertically. Quickly and lightly on the up motion, slow and with pressure on the down motion. Guide the energy down.

(5) Rub thumbs lightly from index finger down toward pinkie. This will your body descend energy. Do it repeatedly until you feel the energy go down.

Ok....good luck!

[ToP-fan]

Thanks folks for your imput and energetic knowledge which by the way will not be interpreted as "medical advice".................A book that I'm currently reading, "Energy Medicine in CFQ Healing" by Master Yap Soon-Yeong and Dr. Chok Hiew describe that when any stagnant or blocked energy is guided down and out of the body, "hundreds of diseases disappear".......So I guess that theory applies to many different styles of energetic work.

[thaddeus]

Thanks Thaddeus...........I understand your concern about the disposing of advice or medical info........I am just borderline hypertensive and am on 1 medication........I would eventually like to get off of the medication by lowering the BP through natural means..........diet, exercise, meditation etc. and was wondering if anybody had success lowering it through the chi kung route.

ok cool..well definately read up on how to keep your endothelium healthy. Once that goes all kinds of things are affected adversely. You are right to look at diet, exercise and other activities. I think Herbert Benson is worth a read another book called NO more Heart Disease to learn about nitric oxide. The Benson research will show that any relaxation will lower the BP, so if you pick any good chigung routine it will help. But run, don't walk, to educate yourself on your arteries, it will pay off in big and unexpected ways.

Just out of curiousity, and you don't have to share, did your doctor explain why you have it or did he just put you on meds right away?

T

[SunDog]

Interesting, and timely topic for me. I know someone who's just gone on meds for high bp. What else can she do besides the usual relaxation, physical activity, and good diet? I've been wondering that myself.

 

Don't know that I could get her doing chi gung though. Darnit.

 

Somewhere in the back of my head are some acupuncture points that are helpful. Haven't looked those up yet.

 

SunDog

[karen]

Interesting, and timely topic for me. I know someone who's just gone on meds for high bp. What else can she do besides the usual relaxation, physical activity, and good diet?

SunDog

 

Lots of things, but depending on what really needs to be addressed. Bear in mind that "high blood pressure" is only a symptom, the result of something not a cause, so just bringing the number down isn't addressing the real problem.

 

We're not cookie cutter people all designed to be 120/70 on the dot, and blood pressure is often one more excuse for prescribing meds, as the criteria keeps mysteriously changing

 

Some food for thought: http://www.thincs.org/discuss.Jan03.htm

 

Also, what some consider "good diet" can be far from appropriate for the particular person, so there's always room for work in that department.

 

Consider: yin deficiency heat, Mg and vit D deficiency, overbreathing (deficiency of CO2 can cause blood vessel constriction and increased pressure), and use any methods that balance the autonomic nervous system, emotional process work, etc. In other words, lots of possibilities to look at.

 

I've seen nutrition and homeopathic treatment turn severely high BP cases around.

 

-Karen

[thaddeus]

 

We're not cookie cutter people all designed to be 120/70 on the dot, and blood pressure is often one more excuse for prescribing meds, as the criteria keeps mysteriously changing

 

 

Alternative therapy often gets maligned by western medicine. However if a patient exhibits high cholesterol, for example, almost every single physician will prescribe a drug to lower that number. It's like turning off the fire alarm extinguishes the fire in the house.

T

[karen]

[ToP-fan]

Thanks for all the valuable imput on a subject that affects millions and unfortunately undiagosed in a lot....................7 years ago when I had a physical for a job, the physician didn't like the diastolic(bottom) number...........I believe it was in the 90's and suggested I go on Atenolol which is a beta-blocker and functions to slow the heart down........Fortunately, there were no side effects and the number came down to the mid 80's.........Thaddeus: I read a book on Nitric oxide a few years ago and I believe it was called "The Arginine Solution"................I have since used L-Arginine and although I haven't seen a BP reduction, the "Viagra Effect" has been cool though.........................Karen: You mentioned "overbreathing". You weren't by any chance refering to the "Buteyko Method" for proper CO2 balance?..................I've heard good things about it, especially for people with asthma..............Well, thats about it for now and thanks again...........ToP-fan

[VCraigP]

[karen]

End of opinion/rant.

 

If a rant at all, it was a truthful rant. There is very little real science coming from mainstream medicine, and we don't need to apologize for declaring the emperor has no clothes .

 

Dr. Sinatra has some good material, although it can be a mixed bag. I like Uffe Ravnskov's seminal work, The Cholesterol Myths, http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm , but there are lots of additional sources of good info on this topic now.. also a very high-fat diet from a Polish physician Dr. Jan Kwasniewski, lots of animal fat, tested clinically for many years, and not contributing to heart disease at all but actually being therapeutic.

 

Kind of an upside-down world we live in.

 

-Karen