Thursday, May 5, 2011

Blood pressure. Can you control yours with a thought?

I was reading the responses to salt in your diet and blood pressure came up. I can control mine over a 15 range and have lowered it dramatically during shock treatment (not electro shock) after an accident. Say what? Okay, supposedly only monks, Hindu priests and other highly tuned to their body individuals can do this but surely not everyday man and woman. Not so. It's a trained response.

I read Dune by Frank Herbert at a young age and the Bein Gesserit mantras for reducing pain, fear and so forth made a certain sense. Take control through training. I tried various calming regimens and noticed that there was a difference. Once after a bad cycle accident and the EM staff told me my BP was way too high, I did the calming and made them recheck. They were amazed but wrote it off as a fluke. After my heart attack and I was being checked regularly, if it was too high or too low, I'd ask for a minute and then told them to recheck. The nurses always found it hard to believe and one time there were five nurses in the room observing just to see it happen as they had never seen control of BP before.

The only way I can describe how it works is an internal tightening or relaxing of my cardio system. I'm wondering if anyone else has managed to do this. I always hate being the only weird one. I'm still working on the levitation trick but to this day, no luck and the Madame isn't giving up her secrets.

7 comments:

hale-bopp said...

I have never tried that while someone was taking my blood pressure. I can make my heart speed up and slow down while at rest to a certain extent. I describe it as kind of like holding your breath, except the pulse slows. I am curious what would happen to the blood pressure when I do that.

Many years ago I really freaked out an old girlfriend when she had her head on my chest and said one of those little "I can hear your heart beat" things and I said, "oh yeah...listen to his" and she was a little freaked when my heart slowed way down. Ain't I a romantic?

Huck Finn said...

LOL HB, I kind of figured you might be able to.

kkdither said...

Who would'a thunk you to be a romantic star gazer, hale??? ;>

I know that if you breathe Lamaze style, your blood pressure goes down. I always try to do that when they take my annual reading. Unfortunately, it is high enough that even with that little trick, I still can't get it low enough to avoid medication.

OrbsCorbs said...

I have white coat syndrome, where my blood pressure rises when I see a doctor. We wait a few minutes, recheck it, and it's always down. So does my mom.

But I can't "control" it. To hell with levitating, Huck, concentrate on the lottery and buy us JTIsland.

jedwis said...

I thought Lamaze was a car race or Fred Sanford's sons name? I have a lot to learn. lol

Toad said...

Jed: THAT was REALLY funny. I may not stop laughing. OH, NO.

SER said...

Oh Hale, hell no, when I was reading your blog and I got to the spot where you said, "oh yeah...listen to this", I thouhgt you were going to rip off a big fart...!!!

Laugh'in