Breathe deeply, until you can?t fit any more air in, then gasp a few more whiffs down.
Do that for five minutes, three to four times a day and you can cut your blood pressure almost as much as the average prescription drug, said Robert Kowalski, author of “The Blood Pressure Cure: 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure Without Prescription Drugs.”
Kowalski, a journalist by training, has combed the peer-reviewed medical journals for decades gathering information about nutrition, medication, body chemistry and heart disease. His latest book follows the re-release last year of his original “8 Week Cholesterol Cure.” Kowalski recently sat down to discuss his findings with The Examiner.
The key to deep breathing is carbon dioxide, or getting rid of it. “When you?re under stress,
you tend to breathe short and shallow,” Kowalski said. “You end up with a carbon dioxide reserve in your lungs that you never really expel, and that makes your heart work harder to get oxygen to the body.”
Regular deep breathing exercises could provide up to a 10-point drop in blood pressure, a benefit you sustain through the day, according to the book. Combining that with meditation could more than double that benefit.
Some of his suggestions are what he calls “obvious” ? losing weight, getting more physically active, stopping smoking and balancing your salt consumption. Others are less so, supplements containing plant sterols, grape-seed extract and time-release arginine can provide powerful gains.
Some people need prescriptions, he cautioned, and anyone considering alternatives should talk with their doctor.
High blood pressure is a fact of life, said cardiologist Dr. Brian Kahn, of Mercy Medical Center?s Overlea clinic. “Blood pressure is an aging process. As you get old, blood vessels get stiffer, less elastic.”
While he said he agreed with Kowalski about the importance of exercise, and to a lesser extent breathing, Kahn said the best thing to do is eat more fresh foods and put down the salt shaker.
Kowalski, however, challenges the conventional wisdom about sodium.
“If you eliminate all traces of salt from a diet,” he said, “you would see a significant reduction in blood pressure. But salt is everywhere. In the real world, you will see maybe a two- to three-point drop in people who are really, sincerely working to reduce sodium.”
It?s better, he said, to try and eat more potassium, found in foods like bananas and sweet potatoes, because our bodies need potassium or sodium for almost every function.
