Most patients with high blood pressure who wish to try complementary therapies don’t know how to go on about finding someone to consult. Whichever therapy you choose to try, be it Western or complementary medicine, the most popular thing is to find someone who is adequately qualified. At the moment, there is little to prevent someone with minimal training - or even no training at all - setting themselves up in business as a practitioner and treating clients. In untrained hands, complementary therapies can do harm.

However, reputable practitioners of the various therapies are trying harder to improve their own practices and to give the public more information about their qualifications and training. The British

Complementary Medicine Association, the Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Health Education Authority are useful sources of further information, or you could ask your own general practitioner or health center for names of reputable local practitioners. Some practices now offer come complementary therapies themselves. Cost may be a factor that you want to take into consideration. These therapies are not often available on the National Health Service and they can prove expensive.

Most individuals who have very stressful jobs wonder if there are ways they could learn to relax and if this would help control their high blood pressure. So are there any complementary therapies that would help these individuals relax? Stress management

may work for some people, but as stress is not the main cause of high blood pressure of most people, management of it is not likely to prove a successful treatment. Having said that, there are obviously many other good reasons for reducing the amount of stress in your life, regardless of any possible effects this may have on your blood pressure. Being less stressed will certainly help you cope with your blood pressure-lowering treatment. For example, an excuse often given by people who have not given up smoking is that a cigarette helps them when they feel stressed.

If you want to learn to relax, you may find that there are local evening classes in relaxation

techniques. Sometimes these are combined with exercise classes, when they are called “stretch and relax classes” or something similar. Some firms offer their employees stress management courses (although you may find that the offer is only open to members of management - for some reason, firms often feel that their managers and executives suffer stress more than the rest of their staff) or similar courses (usually at considerable cost) from various independent training companies. There are also various books on relaxation available - your general practitioner or local library may have some that you can borrow.

The complementary therapies which can aid relaxation are meditation, yoga, the various forms of massage and aromatherapy.

Meditation and yoga (in

which stretching and breathing exercises are performed slowly and deliberately - itself a form of meditation) are more a way of life than occasional activities and require considerable commitment and self-discipline. If you want to try them, you may find meditation classes advertised locally. There are different forms of massage, varying from the very gentle to the positively painful. The level of training varies enormously and people can set themselves up as massage practitioners after only a few days of training. Aromatherapy is treatment with essential oils. These are scented oils extracted from the roots, flowers or leaves of plants by distillation. It often involves massage, but the oils can also be inhaled or added to baths. Aromatherapists would recommend that people with high blood pressure avoid buying the essential oils available over the counter in health food shops without taking proper advice first. Not only do they vary in quality, but some of the most commonly available oils, such as clary sage, can act to raise blood pressure.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to [http://bloodpressure-guide.com/]Blood Pressure