Thanks HN: For Me, Breathing exercise for High Blood Pressure is Working
> Jul 6, Breathing exercise lowers blood pressure better than working out, medication - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27747943
I have High Blood Pressure (HBP), ~140-145/90-95 non-medicated, ~130/85-90 on 40mg Amlodipine.
I've had HBP for about 12 years now. Up until this article, my strongest levers were controlling salt and alcohol intake. I regularly exercised at one point in the past 12 years as part of a fitness company and that didn't really move my medicated needle.
Per the article's recommendation I went and bought an IMT device on AliExpress (happy to share which one, but I don't want to plug a specific device).
I've been using the IMT device for 10 days (first 3 days using to ramp up) and I use an Omron HEM-7280T for BP monitoring. This is the first time it's gone so low on a trailing 7 day average, ~110-115/80-85 on 40mg Amlodipine.
In the past, I've tried so many other things, Beet root, juices, running, but while healthier in general it hardly affected my BP.
I 100% can believe it's because I've been a weak breather in general and this was tackling a core problem my body has. Taking deep belly breathing is much easier now (a key to relaxation?). I usually breath with my chest, even for deep breaths, but now I can do it with my belly. To be fair, that's literally the point of IMT. Be specific, I fit the target group the study (in the Jul 6 article) was aiming for - HBP and relatively low exercise.
With that, I can't say IMT for everyone with HBP, but I do believe it's worth spending $30 to see if it does anything since it's non-drug, non-invasive.
This is not medical advice. Just saying it worked for me. Please talk to your doctor!
If these results stick for 30 days, I'll speak to my doctor about lowering my Amlodipine dosage. First time ever in 12 years.
Thanks HN, Justin