THE MOST RELIABLE APPROCH TO DEFEAT ‘A SILENT KILLER’

Yoga and exercise are an efficient way of declining patients of hypertension in present and in future. However it has been shown that Non-pharmacological intervention prevent the rising blood pressure and reduce it up to maximum extent, near to the normal. This experiment was designed to determine effectiveness of Yoga and exercises therapies to control blood pressure of hypertension patients. The objective was to employ these Non pharmacological therapies to know it’s effectiveness in treatment of hypertension along with pharmacological therapies in conventional way. We tested the short-term efficacy and feasibility to the treatment of hypertension in a small South Gujarat’s industry employees who are living under modern life-style. This was follow-up by physician for 12 months. Of 1031 a small South Gujarat’s industry employees screened, 221 individuals (aged 35 to 60 years) were selected with hypertension. Mental and physical stress-reduction approaches (Meditation and progressive muscle relaxation) were compared with a life-style modification education control program and with each other. The primary outcome measures were changes in clinical diastolic and systolic pressures from baseline to final follow-up. The secondary measures were linear blood pressure trends, home blood pressure, and intervention compliance. Adjusted for significance baseline difference and compared with control, Yoga and meditation reduced systolic pressure by 10.3 mmHg and diastolic pressure by 7.5 mm Hg. Progressive muscle relaxation or Exercise lowered systolic pressure by 4.7 mm Hg and diastolic pressure by 3.1 mm Hg. The reduction in the Yoga and Medication group were significantly greater than in the progressive muscle relaxation group for both systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. Compliance was high in both stress-reduction groups. Home systolic but not diastolic pressure changes were similar to clinical changes. Selected mental and physical stress-reduction techniques demonstrated efficacy in reducing hypertension in this sample of an industry employees. Of the two techniques, Meditation was approximately twice as effective as progressive muscle relaxation. If these both should follow together, it will create long term effects and generalized ability to hypertension patients.