EE7.5 - Blood Pressure Diseases

Blood Pressure Diseases

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Yogic Treatments and Natural Remedies

Notes:

this version: is the Yogic Treatments, 4th edition, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. Words in double square brackets [[ ]] are corrections that did not appear in the printed version.

Online additional information

Lack of sound sleep, getting up a number of times at night to urinate, headache, dizziness, palpitation or pain in chest, etc.

1. Usually those who do little physical labour but at the same time have a lot of fatty foods such as oil, ghee, etc., in their diets become victims of high blood pressure. Fat, in the absence of any physical activity, does not get an opportunity to break down and be converted into heat or energy. The surplus fat turns the body into a mass of flesh and fat, and this exerts an undue pressure on the various organs and glands of the body.

When this surplus fat accumulates within the veins and arteries, it narrows the passage available for the blood. As a result, the blood vessels fail to help the heart in maintaining adequate blood circulation. Under such circumstances, to keep the blood circulation normal, the heart has to overwork.

2. Those who do not undertake much physical labour, but eat substantial quantities of nutritious food, suffer from excessive blood formation in their systems. This surplus blood, after being converted into flesh and fat, gradually obstructs the activity of the blood vessels, as previously described, and produces too high a pressure of blood on the heart.

Meanwhile, the different bodily organs and glands of those who have an excess blood supply and whose hearts are under too much pressure, become over-active, and it generates anger or sexual passion in them. So in people with this type of high blood pressure, sexual desire and anger grow along with the disease. Sometimes this extreme anger or desire causes death due to bursting of the blood vessels.

3. Those who shun physical labour, yet eat an abnormal quantity of animal or vegetable proteins, risk injury due to the surplus protein in their systems. Human bodies have no place to store surplus protein, because they have no need to store it. So the organs of the body try to expel it from the system.

This surplus protein decreases the alkaline portion of the blood and increases the acidic portion. Over-acidity of the blood weakens the blood-producing and blood-purifying organs such as the liver, kidneys, etc., and as a result the veins and arteries also get hardened and weak. These hardened, weak blood vessels cannot maintain the blood circulation, due to which the heart comes under heavy pressure. In this condition, to keep the bodily organs functioning normally, the heart has to over-exert. But the weak blood vessels cannot bear this over-activity of the heart: they burst and cause internal hemorrhaging.

4. For various reasons the blood-producing and blood-purifying organs may become weak. And when they become quite weak, one gets less than the required quantity of blood for the body. In this condition the patient suffers from a lack of sleep, headache, dizziness, serious physical weakness, etc. This is called low blood-pressure.

Morning – Utkśepa Mudrá, Karmásana, Yogamudrá, Diirgha Prańáma, Bhújauṋgásana, Agnisára Mudra, and Váyavii Mudrá or Váyavii Práńáyáma.

Evening – Karmásana, Yogamudrá, Diirgha Prańáma, Bhújauṋgásana, Agnisára Mudrá, and Upaviśt́a Ud́d́ayana Mudrá.

Wonderful results can be obtained if Iishvara prańidhána [meditation] is practised by patients as taught by an ácárya. In fact, so long as patients have not acquired the capacity to perform ásanas and mudrás, Iishvara prańidhána is the only medicine for the disease. With this disease, vyápaka snána⁽¹⁾ is especially helpful.

With blood pressure diseases all acidic foods are to be rejected and alkaline types of food are to be taken in increased quantity. As far as possible, foods such as rice, pulses and rut́i should be eaten in less quantity, and fruits, roots, and leafy vegetable soup should be taken instead. Non-vegetarian food should be avoided. Fried, parched and sweetened foods are also harmful. If one feels the need, a little raw sugar or honey can be taken.

The amount of physical labour should gradually be increased and mental exertion should be decreased. But those who are suffering from low blood pressure should decrease their physical labour until the disease is cured.

Fasting is very beneficial in this disease, so patients must fast on ekádashii, púrńima and amávasyá, taking only water. Those who are physically weak, however, can drink lemon juice with water. It is desirable for patients of low blood pressure to take milk, fruit juice, etc. on fasting days.

Those who suffer from high blood pressure due to too much fat should drink curd-water or coconut milk instead of milk. Patients should carefully abstain from using intoxicants and should be careful to avoid eating constipating or fattening foods. They should also stay away from anger and sex.

The dos and don’ts prescribed for heart disease should generally be observed here also.

2. Take one spoonful of sarpagandhá juice with a little honey twice a day; or

3. Take 1/16 or 1/8 tola of sarpagandhá root powder with a little honey and triphalá juice twice a day.

4. Powder of bhúmi kuśmáńda in 1/16 tola quantity should be taken twice daily with honey.

5. 1/16 or 1/8 tola of dried sarpagandhá root powder with michrii-water should be taken twice daily.

(1) [[Regarding vyápaka snána, the author’s Ananda Marga Caryácarya Part 3, “Different Yoga Practices” explains:
A bathtub is most convenient, but if this is not available, an earthen trough will suffice. If this is not available either, a wet towel can be used, soaking it repeatedly in water. Fill the bathtub with cold water, and sit in it undressed so that the area from the navel down remains submerged. Keep your feet dry and out of the tub. The area from the neck to the navel should be kept covered with a shirt or dry cloth. The crown of the head and the back of the head should be kept covered with a wet towel.
Now take another towel and rub the area from the right side of the abdomen to the groin seven or eight times. Do likewise on the left-hand side and horizontally from right to left and left to right. You should make sure that the towel on the head remains wet.
After this, wipe the abdomen, hands and thighs and take a full bath. If this is not possible, then leave the tub wearing a shirt.
This should be practised behind closed doors. In the absence of a bathtub or an earthen trough, a wet towel may be wrapped around the areas to be bathed, but in order to compensate, cold water must be poured constantly over the towel, and the towel which is to be used for the massage must be kept wet. After vyápaka snána, the thighs, pubic area and abdomen should be warmed with a dry towel.
Before and after this bath one should not eat, in order to allow the stomach to rest.
–Trans.]]