Even a Little Psychological Stress Can Raise Blood Pressure

Cardiovascular responders to stress hormones are at risk for essential hypertension or high blood pressure. Why? Because stress hormones elevates their heart rate and constricts their blood vessels. What results is not unlike what happens when you bend your garden hose and turn the faucet on more. Pressure builds up.

An Italian research team has shown that even mild stress can raise blood pressure and interfere with the mechanisms that regulate the cardiovascular system.

Inner Balance is achieved when the two components of our involuntary nervous system are in equilibrium. Mindbody fitness training develops our capacity to achieve and maintain Inner Balance. Inner Balance greatly supports our cardiovascular system health by allowing the mechanisms that control cardiovascular function to operate at best levels. This creates optimal heart rate variability which is an important signature of our heart's ability to handle stress.

The Italian scientists assessed their subjects involuntary nervous system functioning found that participants in their study experienced inner imbalance and higher blood pressure on days they were stressed—particularly on days when they were to be tested.

Dr. James Lynch has done remarkable work demonstrating the power of the mind on blood pressure. See his book The Language of the Heart. He discovered that people whose blood pressure was normal in their doctor's office when they were silent, demonstrated marked increases in blood pressure when they spoke. Speaking involves the presentation of self. The more shaky and uncertain we are within ourselves, the greater the elevation in our blood pressure when we speak—even to just one other person.

Mind-side fitness includes freeing ourselves from the emotional confusion and past conditioning that causes self-doubt. Mindbody Synchrony gives us a center of self-assurance and confidence, one based on a solid foundation that is unshakable.