Research Finds Yoga Beneficial In Reducing Hypertension

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, remains the most common reason for office visits to physicians for non-pregnant adults in the United States. Some 50 million Americans are believed to have hypertension. Despite its prevalence and the complications associated with it, control of the disease is far from adequate. As a result, hypertension will likely remain the most common risk factor for stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease for years to come.

At the same time, some 42 percent of Americans have used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches to meet their health care needs, spending more out-of-pocket for CAM than the amount projected for expenditures in 1997 for all U.S. physician services. Nearly three million people are estimated to have tried mind-body techniques to treat their hypertension; approximately eight percent of the hypertensive population.

Mind-Body medicine, one of five major branches of CAM therapeutics, uses behavioral techniques to augment the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms, utilizing varied approaches such as meditation, prayer, mental healing, and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music, or dance. The 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found nearly 30 million users of relaxation techniques including meditation and yoga, and 10 million users of yoga therapies. One-fourth of those who used mind-body therapies rated them “very helpful.”

source:http://www.healthnews247.com/