High Blood Pressure And Anxiety

When the day-to-day stress appears in life, anxiety is a natural reaction and helps people deal with the stress. However, when anxieties turn from being a part of natural life and into something that is irrational and excessive, it can no longer be considered a coping mechanism, but becomes a true disability. At this time, it may be necessary to contact a health care professional to help the individual understand the disorder and to treat it accordingly.

However, when looking at high blood pressure and anxiety, we need look no further than daily stress and its effect upon the body especially in connection with raising blood pressure. Since anxiety is a normal reaction to stress, manage the stress - reduce the anxiety.

In What Ways Does Stress Affect The Body?

Our ancestors, while living in caves, had a built-in mechanism that allowed them to survive. The mechanism for survival is referred to as "fight or flight" and it allowed them to run to save their lives or to stay and fight. In both cases, the response to the stress resulted in them taking part in a physical activity.

Modern men and women are not so lucky. Everyday we are bombarded with stressful situation such as: oversleeping, being late for work,accidentally dumping coffee on work clothes, having more bills than money at the end of the month - it goes on and on and on. These are just a few of the many hundreds of ways stress can affect us at home, work, or socializing. The thing is, when we are stressed and the chemicals that are being dumped into our blood to give us the ability to run or fight aren't used - they stay circulating in the blood causing damage to our bodies. This is one reason why, when in a stressful situation, someone may say "take a brisk walk". The brisk walk will pull the stress chemicals into the muscles and the physical activity of walking will get rid of them without harming the body, just like our ancestors.

Taking a brisk walk may not be a possibility for the person that has just experienced a stressful situation. When this is the case, there is another option and that is "deep breathing" exercises that can be done while sitting in a chair or lying on the floor.

Our bodies need to have stress in order to function normally. The good type of stress is called eustress. When stress advances past the point of helping to motivate us, it is then that it becomes distress, or bad stress, and our overall health is jeopardized. Many researchers have found that over eighty percent of all visits to a doctor's office are related either directly or indirectly to stress. There are three specific areas of intervention that can lower the impact of stress on our lives. They are deep breathing exercises, dietary changes, and physical activity.

Since you can do breathing exercises anywhere and at any time, this should be the first activity that you turn to when in a stressful situation to reduce high blood pressure and anxiety:

1. Lie down or sit in a chair. If sitting in a chair keep your feet flat on the floor, feel yourself relaxing into the chair, then begin. If you do this exercise lying down, sometimes it is more comfortable to put a pillow under the knees and head.

2. Rest your hands on your stomach. We are basically shallow breathers, we never take a deep breath. By putting your hands on your stomach, you force yourself to suck the air all the way down into the lower part of the lungs, which then pushes the stomach out.

3. As you slowly count to four inhale through your nose. Feel your stomach rise. Hold it for a second.

4. Slowly count to six while you exhale through your mouth. To control how fast you exhale, purse your lips like you're going to whistle. Your stomach will slowly fall. When you think you have exhaled all you can, try and exhale a little more air.

5. Repeat 3 times.

It does take some practice to do the breathing exercise correctly, but once a person becomes comfortable with the technique, it can be done anywhere even standing up. After awhile, you will not need to place your hand on your stomach when doing the exercise. Remember to breath in slowly for the count of four, hold for a couple seconds, then slowly exhale as much air as you can for the count of six. Wait a second and then repeat the process two more times.

Anyone beginning to do deep breathing exercises may experience a feeling of being lightheaded. If that's the case, then stop. Once a person becomes accustomed to this exercise, they can do it anytime during the day. This is a powerful stress and anxiety intervention, don't underestimate how power it is.

Keep in mind that anxiety is a common reaction when stress is involved. When you begin practicing this form of stress management, you will be working towards reducing your high blood pressure and anxiety naturally and safely.