Today I am looking at the question can massage help with reducing high blood pressure.
Why is this important in the first place?
According to the British government statistics approximately 1 in 4 adults worldwide have high blood pressure. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 highlights that is the second biggest known global risk factor for disease after poor diet. In the UK, high blood pressure is the third biggest risk factor for disease after tobacco smoking and poor diet.
High blood pressure is the largest single known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and related disability. It increases the risk of heart failure and stroke among other things. Diseases caused by high blood pressure cost the NHS over 2.1 billion a year.
If you have high blood pressure you might need to take medication for life, doctors say.
Other possibilities?
While there are certainly genetic factors for it, high blood pressure is mostly a life style related condition. Too much salt in our diet, obesity, alcohol consumption and lack of physical activity all contribute to developing the condition. And these are all things we can have control over with help from our loved ones and experienced professionals.
How can massage help?
There are many studies that have looked into the effect of massage on high blood pressure.
As early as 1999, researchers from the Touch Research Institute and two universities in the US conducted a study in which participants were randomly assigned to either a massage therapy group or a progressive relaxation group. Results showed that while both groups had lower anxiety levels and lower levels of depression, only the massage therapy group showed decreases in blood pressure as well as cortisol stress-hormone levels.
Two more studies from 2000 and 2005 also found that massage therapy may be effective in reducing blood pressure and symptoms associated with it.
In 2012-13 researchers looked into the effect of back massage on hypertension. They say that tension and stress are among the factors that lead to high blood pressure. For most people, strategies, such as relaxation and massage, are effective in controlling their response to stress, thus reducing hypertension. Massage is a simple, acceptable, and teachable method for families to control blood pressure, concludes the paper.
A study from 2013 focused on the durability of that effect. The results showed that mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the massage group was significantly lower in comparison with the control group. 72 hours after finishing the study, that difference was still there.
A new one from 2021 found that foot and back massage are effective in reducing blood pressure and improving sleep quality. Non-pharmacologic methods like massage may be effective for balancing blood pressure and solving sleep problems, says the paper.
These are some of the scientific findings showing that massage can help with reducing high blood pressure and the risk of both heart disease and stroke. Add a change in diet and physical activity and you might be able to avoid the medication for good.
Related articles:
Proven benefits of touch or how does massage help people
How moving in the morning slows down ageing
Image by silviarita from Pixabay
