RESPeRATE for High Blood Pressure?

[gindie]

I just ordered the product after seeing a USA Today article and hearing about good things that Mayo and Johns Hopkins had to say.

Has anybody had any experience/luck with it? It is a feedback device to slow down your breathing, which supposedly over a period of time will lower your pressure.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I just ordered the product after seeing a USA Today article and hearing about good things that Mayo and Johns Hopkins had to say.

I looked into this at a patient's request not long ago. The available evidence is insufficient to draw sound conclusions.

I would add two observations: first, there is a plausible biologic reason why this approach might lower blood pressure (it decreases what is called autonomic tone, the tendency to constrict blood vessels and increase heart rate and force) so I would not dismiss it out of hand and second, there is NO evidence that lowering blood pressure in this way decreases the risk of high blood pressure (in contrast to medication which has been convincingly shown to decrease strokes, kidney failure and heart failure, and possibly heart attacks); it is possible that there are other mechanisms at work.

Have you considered practicing meditation (not necessarily spiritual-based)? It may work through similar mechanisms, is free, has no known risk, and probably has other benefits in terms of well-being, stress reduction and so on. Instead of working by reducing already-released stress chemicals, it works in part be preventing their release in the first place through retraining your response to the various stimuli -- you learn to observe them from a comfortable distance rather than automatically "reacting" to them. But here, too, this is theoretical rather than proven (and only you can judge the wellbeing claim). The Dummies book by Bodian is a good place to start.

Just a thought.

 

[dumpster56]

I would not dismiss out of hand BUT even with my running for 40+ years weight is good 178 on a 6 foot frame my BP was too high. I have been on an ace inhibitor 5 mg lisinopril and 50 mg of topiril daily and my BP is 115/65, a far cry from that reading of 180/110 that made me say uh oh I need to see the doctor. Funny though how I felt great even with that pressure 8 years ago.

I thank the meds for getting my pressure down, sure I meditate and take garlic and exercise my fool rear off but if I went off the meds It would go back up.

Why people are afraid to take medication is odd. Especially for BP, it works, side effects for me are a dry cough for 10 mins about 6 hours after I take the ace inhibitor, you could set your clock on it EVERY NIGHT it wakes me up I take it around 7pm daily and at 1am it happens, not a big deal, And the morning beta blocker makes me feel like I am running in sand for the first few miles. Slower heart rate, again it is not a problem.

 

[gindie]

Thanks very much, Rich. It has a decent guarantee period on it, so it will give me some time to evaluate.

The one surprising/interesting comment you made was that just getting the pressure down might not be enough, that the way it happens might make a difference.

With my pressure, I get it down to the mid 120's/high 70's for months at a stretch and then out-of-nowhere it goes 10-20 points higher. So, the doc increases the meds.

Thanks again.