In the cacophonous world of today, hypertension has turned out to be a common health problem with expected number of adults having high blood pressure is likely to touch 1.56 billion marks by 2025. Well, thanks to years old Indian concept of yoga (originated around 5,000 years ago) that has proved its efficacy against this health problem repeatedly.
This time it was repeated review of around 12 randomized trails that came out christening yoga the most effective in fighting hypertension among the three mind-body therapies (MBT) that included meditation, yoga, and guided imagery. However, remaining two therapies were also quite effective in fighting hypertension. As per the findings of this review, mind-body therapies significantly reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) by a mean 11.52 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 6.83 mm Hg.
It is important to mention here that these findings are based on 12 randomized trials conducted on adult men and non-pregnant women who were suffering from hypertension. Importance of these findings, especially in the modern perspective, can’t be overlooked when tidal wave of hypertension has almost engulfed the entire globe. And this is quite a serious issue because it paves the way for some serious health problems like:
Heart attack
Heart failure
Kidney disease
Stroke
Interestingly, in the recent years, importance of Yoga for a healthy life has been recognized far and wide, as it has come out defying the earlier assumption that yoga is ineffective when compared with other treatments available. Now even the severe critics of yoga have accepted that yoga can offer relief even for patients suffering from asthma, chronic back pain, arthritis and obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. In the end, following comments by some of the people whose lives saw a new dawn of invigorated change after they adopted this centuries old concept of yoga-
After my twin boys were born, I never slept more than three hours a day. Yoga gave me instant relief and helped me focus on myself. Now I get seven blissful hours of sleep.
– Kandice Hemsley
Just thinking about taking a trip stressed me out. I always suffered from motion sickness. Now I use the breathing techniques I learned from yoga and all my fears fly away.
– Liz Summers
I used to chain smoke like a fiend. When I began yoga classes I became more mindful of each breath I took. I turned my whole life around – I went from New York City party girl to New York City Marathon runner.
– Maria DiBenedetto
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