by Ketti Mazzocco
In all practices, attention to breathing is a key component. Regardless of the practice used, the benefits are clear
I read that practicing meditation helps keep blood pressure under control: true? Are there cases in which meditation could even replace the drugs used to treat hypertension?
Answered by Ketti Mazzocco, psychologist, European Institute of Oncology, University of Milan
Over the last thirty years, numerous scientific studies have been conducted on the effect that meditation can have on blood pressure. Several meta-analyses highlight a significant improvement in systolic (maximum) and diastolic (minimum) blood pressure in people who practice meditation, compared to those who do not meditate. Meditative practices are different. Although a categorization may be reductive, for simplicity here we can distinguish two broad categories: transcendental and non-transcendental meditation. The first is based on the repetition of a sound, a word or a phrase (mantra) which allows you to quiet the mind, focusing attention on a specific stimulus (mantra) and diverting attention from the numerous thoughts that occupy it, reaching a been without thoughts. Non-transcendental practices (the best known are probably mindfulness-based techniques) work through training in awareness of one’s thoughts in the absence of judgement.
Obvious benefits but it is better not to abandon therapies
In all meditation practices, attention to breathing is a key component. Regardless of the practice used, the benefits are clear. For example, one meta-analysis showed that meditation reduces resting systolic blood pressure by 5.55 – 8.97 mmHg (millimeters of mercury). However, it is important to underline that, in some studies, this improvement was not highlighted. We must therefore be cautious in abandoning pharmacological therapy to control blood pressure to rely exclusively on mind-body practices.
Rather, the latter must be considered as techniques to be integrated with traditional medicine. A critical point regarding the effectiveness or otherwise of meditation concerns individual subjectivity: for those who are not used to it, these techniques require mental effort and an intention focused on the present moment to regulate attention, emotions, become aware of one’s thoughts, of one’s body and its sensations and above all to produce a change in perspective on oneself.
The difficulties
In Western cultures it is more tiring to meditate, because you are not used to sitting still, in silence and listening (for example listening to just your breathing); even in the absence of a concrete situation of physical movement, thoughts continue to race about what happens outside the present moment, about what still needs to be done, about the various worries of life, about an event that has just happened. Another aspect that can impact the effectiveness is the temporary nature of the effect obtained: as with pharmacological treatments, the positive effect of meditation tends to gradually decrease once you stop practicing.
This is easily explained if you think about the process on which meditation acts: the response to stress. When faced with a stressful event, there is the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which produces stress hormones (in particular cortisol) and of the autonomic nervous system, which imposes a physiological modification, including an increase in blood pressure. . The activation of the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is fundamental to prepare us to fight or to move away from the stressful event. Once the stressful event is eliminated, the stress response deactivates.
Turn off the stress response
If the stressful event cannot be fought or avoided there is a problem, because this prevents the deactivation of the stress response. The way in which an event is experienced, stressful or not, again depends on individual subjectivity. Based on personal past experiences, each of us attributes a threatening or pleasant meaning to an event, even if the event is by its nature neutral (for example speaking in public, which in itself is a neutral event).
It is precisely this meaning of threat that activates the stress response. In order for meditation to have a clinically significant effect, in the short and potentially long term, it therefore becomes important to deactivate the stress response, constantly striving to regulate breathing, quiet the mind and train it in an awareness of one’s thoughts, which is free from judgment and, importantly, that leads to a change in the way we interpret the events we find ourselves facing.
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December 3, 2023 (modified December 3, 2023 | 12:36)
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