In a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, Australian scientists have finally proven, and explained how, a specific breathing technique lowers blood pressure.
In today’s article, I’ll tell you how this technique works as well as teaching it to you step-by-step.
You see, the sympathetic nervous system controls both the rate at which you breathe and the pressure of your blood through your arteries.
By studying rats, the Australian team discovered that those who were at particularly high risk of developing blood pressure during their middle age had a modified or unnatural pattern of interaction between the neurons that regulate breathing rates and those that regulate blood pressure.
To be more precise, those at high risk of blood pressure showed larger fluctuations in blood pressure with every breath than those at low risk showed.
When the researchers broke this unnatural interaction between the neurons responsible for breathing rate and those responsible for blood pressure, the rat’s blood pressure remained normal into their middle ages.
I’m not sure how the scientists broke the breathing pattern with the rats (since teaching them breathing techniques is a challenge) but humans can easily do it with conscious slow, deep breathing.
And it doesn’t take much effort to learn:
1) Sit in a comfortable chair with your spine straight.
2) Focus on the place where your ribs meet your tummy, as you inhale slowly. You may count slowly to six as you inhale.
3) Hold your breath for a couple of seconds before exhaling slowly (count slowly to eight while exhaling).
4) Then pause breathing again for a couple of seconds before repeating steps 2–4 for a few minutes.
Slow, deep breathing is helpful. But it’s only one part of the exercises I teach to lower blood pressure naturally.
To bring your blood pressure below 120/80 you need a more advanced breathing technique as well as two other techniques that reboot your system.