Foundation study looks at yoga and meditation for lowering blood pressure

Dr. Sheldon Tobe, executive for the Canadian Hypertension Education Program, is being funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation to study how effectively stress-relief techniques such as yoga and meditation can reduce blood pressure. According to the earlier InterHeart study, stress was the one modifiable risk factor that accounted for 90% of first heart attacks. This may be because stress is linked to high blood pressure – a condition affecting five million Canadians. The symptoms are often silent and most people require medication to control their blood pressure. Hopefully, Dr. Tobe’s study will discover whether or not patients can reduce the need for medication by using mindfulness based stress relaxation therapy (MBSR)