High Blood Pressure: Relaxing the Arteries
During each heartbeat, the heart muscle contracts to push blood around the body. The pressure produced by the heart is at its highest when the muscle contracts, and is known as the systolic pressure. The heart muscle relaxes before the next contraction and the pressure falls to its lowest, known as the diastolic pressure. Each type of pressure is expressed in millimetres of mercury (mmHg). People are generally considered to have high blood pressure if they have a systolic pressure above 160 mmHg and a diastolic pressure above 90 mmHg. Blood vessels tend to be less elastic in older people, making their blood pressure higher.
Hypertension
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is extremely common, affecting 10 to 20 per cent of the population. In 90 per cent of sufferers, the cause remains a mystery. Risk factors include being overweight, unfit, drinking large amounts of alcohol and stress.
In stressful situations, the heart rate increases and blood pressure rises. A well-known example is "white coat hypertension", in which a patient's blood pressure rises simply as a result of having it measured by a doctor. When these people measure their pressure at home they can sometimes discover that their blood pressure is, in fact, normal.
Although the effects of short-term stress on the blood pressure are well documented, what is more debatable is whether chronic stress can be responsible for chronic hypertension. It is unclear whether hypnosis alone is enough to control certain chronic blood pressure problems.
Nevertheless, many therapists will offer hypnosis for hypertension. In addition to relaxation under hypnosis, another popular method is getting clients to visualize the psychosomatic processes involved in an attempt to modify the physical response. Clients can be asked to visualise their arteries softening and becoming more elastic, allowing the pressure of blood flowing through them to be reduced.
For Hypnotherapy Birmingham and help with High Blood Pressure, call me on 0121 707 3588.