Hypertension or High Blood Pressure

What is Hypertension or High Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure measures the pressure in your arteries as your heart pumps blood around your body. It is something that will naturally rise and lower throughout the average day. Everyday emotions, as well as our physical activity will play a part in levels changing. However, if blood pressure is consistently too high over a period of time, then a person is likely to be diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure. The key here, is the word ‘consistently’. One high blood pressure readying does not mean you have hypertension.

Hypertension literally means ‘over pressure’ and it is a major factor in approximately 20-25% of all deaths. It is estimated that one in three people worldwide are affected by it, and in 90% of cases doctors are unable to find a physical cause. Fortunately, help is at hand with the aid of the Hypnotension™ Programme.

For that 90% of cases, there are often risk factors that will affect a persons blood pressure negatively. They may be physical, emotional or lifestyle factors. The most common risk factors are:

 

• The general health of your heart, arteries and kidneys
• Your emotional state and ‘stress’ levels generally
• Salt intake
• Exercise, or lack of
• Alcohol consumption
• Your weight, and specifically you Body Mass Index (BNI).
  

The Hypnotension™ Programme aims to have a positive affect on 5 of the 6 main risk factors listed above. Research has shown that if you make positive steps to reduce these these, then it is highly likely that you will reduce your blood pressure, moving it closer to the more normal reading of 120/80. Of course, it’s also highly likely that you will and also improve your overall health dramatically. And that has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?

So, what is the Hypnotension™ Programme?

If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, you know that it is a serious condition needs to be treated. If not, you run the risk of significantly reducing your life expectancy. But you already know that, don’t you? This will have been explained to you already by your GP. Your GP or medical professional may already have made recommendations to you about lifestyle changes, and they probably make perfect sense. Sometimes the difficulty can actually be putting those changes into practice. Maybe you feel you can’t do it by yourself, and need a little help achieving the changes you need to make.

The Hypnotension™ Programme may be that little bit of extra help that you need. It is a unique programme that works with you to lower your blood pressure naturally. It does not consist of a magic  wand that makes everything happen overnight, but it might be the difference that makes the difference. Of course, you still need to follow the advice from your GP and medical professionals. The programme works to compliment that, not replace it. But even if you’re on medication for your hypertension, we can work together. And who knows, there may come a point very soon, where you and your GP decide that your medication can be reduced or even stopped. Please, only do this under medical supervision, of course! 

So, if you need to lose weight, cut down on the alcohol, reduce salt and exercise more, I can help. And yet, there is more to it than that, because any competent hypnotherapist can make achieving those things much easier, so how does the Hypnotension™ Programme differ?

As a Hypnotension therapist, working together with you, we can tackle the underlying emotional factors - known as ‘X Factors’. Hypnotherapy has been shown to be a very effective tool to assist clients in reducing their blood pressure levels.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in September 2011 completed a review of research around hypertension and concluded that lifestyle factors as well as stress, play a part in primary hypertension. So together we would look at your life experiences and any stresses that could be helping to raise your blood pressure more than it should. These might include, but are not limited to childhood events, your social beliefs, trauma, conditioning, fears, inappropriate beliefs and family pressures.

We will use a process which identifies any X Factors, with the purpose of allowing you to let go of emotional issues that may be contributing to your hypertension. That, combined with teaching you tools to help manage your own emotional well-being can make a huge difference and tackle many primary or essential hypertension cases.

 

With over 90% of cases of high blood pressure having no clear medical cause, your GP can only work to manage the symptoms, rather than addressing any underlying problems you may have. They have a limited time with each of their patients which means they can’t devote the time or resources needed to work on the X Factors. That could mean a life time of medication ahead of you. 

You take back the control through the Hypnotension™ Programme because, we do have the time to work to identify and address the issues that are unique to you, lowering or perhaps even returning your blood pressure to normal levels. And just think, even if you only managed a reduction of 2.5/1.4mmHg using the Hypnotension™ Programme, it still cuts your risk of dying from a stroke by 12-14% and heart disease by 9-10%*!

If you’re interested in finding out more, then please contact me for an informal chat about how we might tackle your hypertension together.

*According to a study by FJ He, A MacGregor. Hypertension 2003 42: 1093-1099