Control BP with yoga

We all know at least one person who has high blood pressure and takes one or more pills a day to bring it under control. This is because high blood pressure-what doctors call hypertension-affects one in three adults. Elevated blood pressure, which increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and kidney disease, is often described as a "silent killer." Recognisable symptoms do exist-fatigue, nosebleeds, nervous tension, ringing in the ears, dizziness, bursts of anger, headaches-but not generally until blood pressure is dangerously high.

Stress as the culprit
Blood pressure-the force blood exerts against the walls of your arteries as it travels through the circulatory system-fluctuates during the day, increasing during exertion or stress and decreasing when the body is at rest. Most doctors agree that a blood pressure reading of less than 120/80 is ideal for adults, and diagnose hypertension when those numbers reach 140/90.
Although several conditions can cause secondary high blood pressure (kidney disease, hormone abnormalities, type 2 diabetes), more often than not a high-stress lifestyle can lead to what doctors call "essential" hypertension, where there is no disease-specific cause.
Yoga, when performed mindfully, can reduce this type of stress-induced hypertension, while addressing its underlying causes. It pacifies the sympathetic nervous system and slows down the heart, while teaching the muscles and mind to relax deeply.

Pranayama
Pranayama can also be beneficial. Research studies demonstrate that conscious breathing quickly lowers blood pressure, especially alternate nostril breathing.
Procedure: Sit in a meditative posture. Keep your back and neck straight and close your eyes. Keeping the index and middle fingers straight, close the right nostril with the thumb. Place the index and middle fingers in the middle of the forehead, and exhale air gradually through the left nostril. After inhaling as much air as you can, close the left nostril with your ring and small finger. Now remove your thumb from the right nostril and exhale the air gradually through it. Then inhale through the right nostril. Next, put the thumb on the right nostril and breathe out of the left nostril by removing the fingers from it. This completes one cycle of anulom-vilom pranayam or alternate nostril breathing. Do 10 such rounds. 
End your practice with at least five minutes of shavasana, using a blanket, if necessary, to support the back of your neck so it stays long and your face can completely relax toward your chest.

Pashchimottanasana (Posterior Stretch Pose)
Sit on two folded blankets and extend your legs straight in front of you in dandasana (seated staff pose), feet hip-width apart.
Straighten your legs and press the thighbones toward the floor as much as you can without allowing your heels to lift. Relax the forehead and spread your elbows as you release the shoulders apart and away from your neck.
Extend through the backs of the heels and move your back ribs toward your front ribs down onto the bolster. Keep the back of the neck long and soft and relax your facial features. Hold for two minutes and then return to dandasana.

Balasana
Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips. Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck. Lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back. Balasana is a resting pose. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Stay in the pose from one to threeminutes. To come up, first lengthen the front torso, and then with an inhalation lift from the tailbone as it presses down and into the pelvis.

--Vineeta Gogia
Yoga, meditation and weight loss consultant
M: 9810084240