Acupuncture and Herbs for High Blood Pressure
Since times immemorial, Acupuncture is a unique treatment for reducing high blood pressure in human beings. High blood pressure refers to a situation where blood starts exerting pressure against the walls of arteries, veins and also the chambers of the heart. Over a specified time period, this heavy rush of blood starts damaging the lining of the blood vessels. It can also lead to arteriosclerosis, meaning hardening of the arteries.
First of all, let's get used to the same method as acupuncture, which is therapeutic acupressure
This point is located on the top of the foot in the webbing between the big toe and the second toe. Use your thumb to feel for the bones of the two toes into you can feel where they intersect. Then slide your thumb about a thumb-width above this intersection and press into the webbing between the bones. Press and hold for about one minute on each foot.
To locate the Heart-7 point, look at your wrist with the palm facing upwards. Right at the base of your palm where your hand meets your wrist is a crease in the skin. While there are quite a few lines in this area, one will appear more prominent than the others.
Learn more for ElectroAcupuncture:
The human body has 12 primary channels or pathways for Qi to flow. The pathways are like a circulatory system for energy. When your Qi is flowing as it should, your body is in a state of balance. You feel energized, alive and healthy. However, when your Qi is disrupted, this disharmony eventually shows up as physical symptoms in your body if the Qi imbalance continues for an extended period of time.
It’s easy to understand this when you compare the flow of Qi to a river. If the river is flowing smoothly, then the ecosystem is in balance. However, if the river is obstructed, sediment begins to accumulate and eventually plugs up the river, leading to problems both upstream and downstream.
Stress can constrict the flow of Qi in your body leading to obstructed energy in some areas of your body and not enough flowing to others. To return to balance, you need to ensure that your Qi is flowing smoothly and abundantly throughout your body.
For high blood pressure, the pulse often feels very tense like a rope would feel when you’re pulling a heavy load. When the rope is sitting in a pile, it’s very loose and relaxed. When you pull on it like in a tug of war, the rope feels very taut. There are also other types of pulses associated with high blood pressure and these different pulses give clues about the different energy disharmonies going on in a person’s energy meridians.
Acupuncture for High Blood Pressure
Three therapeutic acupressure points selected in Traditional Chinese Medicine for high blood pressure (with the criteria of effectiveness and ease of practice)
There are three points that are beneficial to massage. They’re a great starting point (bad pun intended) for health and wellness. These points help boost your Qi, get it flowing and also help nourish underlying deficiencies that can cause high blood pressure.
1. Chinese Reflexology Point for the Kidney
WARNING: Do not massage the Kidney point if you are pregnant because it is located near the acupuncture point, Kidney-1, which is used for inducing labour.
The Kidney point is one of the most important points to massage for hypertension. That’s because it helps to boost your Kidney Qi, harmonize the Kidney meridian, and tonify (yup, that’s a word in Traditional Chinese Medicine lingo) Kidney deficiencies that may be at the root of elevated blood pressure.
As well, those suffering from secondary hypertension related to the kidneys will also benefit from this point. Harmonizing the Kidney meridian helps to support kidney function. If you ‘d like to read more about this point and how it helped my grandmother when she had kidney failure, sign up for my newsletter and you’ll receive a series of complimentary online lessons. The Kidney point is lesson 3.
How to Locate and Massage the Kidney Reflexology Point
Your Kidney reflexology point is located on the soles of both feet. To find this point, imagine a horizontal line dividing your foot in half from the tip of your big toe (line 1 in diagram) to the base of your heel (line 4 in diagram).
Your Kidney point is located above this horizontal line (line 3 in diagram) and below the line at the bottom of the ball of your foot (line 2 in diagram).
Next, imagine a vertical line dividing your foot in half. It intersects with the horizontal line (line 3) to form four quadrants. Two thirds of the Kidney point is located in the top inside quadrant and the other third is located in the top outside quadrant.
To massage this point, press it with your thumb and rub up and down for about 15 to 30 seconds. Alternately, you can use your knuckles to rub it in an up and down motion. Repeat for the other foot. Practice this daily.
If you feel any skin irritation caused by the friction of rubbing, stop massaging the point until the skin heals. You can use a lubricant like almond oil or Vaseline to reduce the friction.
2. Tai Chong (Liver-3)
WARNING: Do not massage the Tai Chong (Liver-3) point if you are pregnant. This point powerfully moves Qi and is contraindicated (not to be used) when pregnant as it can induce labour.
Tai Chong, also known as Liver-3 (LV-3) is located on the Liver meridian of your body. In Chinese Medicine, the Liver plays a key role in ensuring the smooth flow of Qi throughout the body. The emotions of anger and frustration are associated with the Liver and they negatively impact the Liver’s ability to smooth the flow of Qi in your body.
How to Locate and Massage Liver-3
This point is located on the top of the foot in the webbing between the big toe and the second toe. Use your thumb to feel for the bones of the two toes into you can feel where they intersect. Then slide your thumb about a thumb-width above this intersection and press into the webbing between the bones. Press and hold for about one minute on each foot.
This point is especially beneficial for smoothing the flow of Liver Qi in your body as well as nourishing blood and yin deficiencies in the Liver.
You may be wondering why I’m not teaching the Liver reflexology point here. I only teach this point in workshops and classes because one of your liver’s primary functions is to filter the blood and break down toxins in the body.
What this means is that over time, especially if you’re not 100% healthy, toxins can build up in the Liver. If you massage this point without guidance, you can release more toxins than your system can handle and you could overwhelm your body, resulting in detox symptoms such as irritability, rash or fatigue. They’ll eventually clear away, but why make yourself miserable when there’s a better way to approach this?
Part of the healing process to bring balance to your body is to heal with a balanced approach
3. Shen Men (Heart-7)
The English translation of Shen Men is “Spirit Gate.” Because stress and tension are major factors in raising your blood pressure, it’s important to calm down to give your body room to heal.
Constant stress increases tension in your arteries and veins. It disrupts the natural flow of Qi in your body. This shows up differently in different people, but if you have high blood pressure, this is the way it’s showing up in your body.
Your body is telling you that need to de-stress. And if you have kidney-related secondary hypertension, your body is telling you to look at the factors that affect balance in your Kidneys and Kidney meridian. From a Mind Body perspective, you may be working too much and pushing yourself too hard. You may also have a longstanding habit of putting others ahead of yourself.
How to Locate and Massage Heart-7
To locate the Heart-7 point, look at your wrist with the palm facing upwards. Right at the base of your palm where your hand meets your wrist is a crease in the skin. While there are quite a few lines in this area, one will appear more prominent than the others.
Next, notice where the base of your pinky finger and your ring finger meet. Imagine a vertical line from this point reaching downwards towards your wrist crease. Press on the wrist crease where this imaginary line intersects with it.
Feel for a slight indentation between your bone and the tendon in your wrist. When your thumb presses into this depression, you’ve located your “Spirit Gate.” Press and hold this point for about 60 seconds on each wrist. Whenever you’re feeling upset or stressed, you can press on this point to help calm yourself down.
For high blood pressure, consistently massaging all of the Chinese Reflexology points on your feet would result in the greatest benefit because everything is interconnected. If you think about it, when Western Medicine can’t pinpoint the cause for a disease or ailment, it’s probably because more than one element is involved. For example, you can’t just look at your nose to heal yourself of allergies.
Start practicing the points in this article and when they become a regular habit and feel like second nature, then you can start running. Once or twice a year, I teach an online in depth mastery program on Traditional Chinese Reflexology and if you’re eager to learn more, this is where you can start running :). When I offer the program, I’ll announce the details in my newsletter.
So here are the two key takeaways for you to run with from this article:
- Start massaging your Kidney point daily, especially if it is sore when you press on it. You can also practice the other two points in this article, but the Kidney point is what I consider to be the most important point in Chinese Reflexology.
- Acknowledge that your high blood pressure is a message from your body. There is a great deal of stress in your present life or from the past that you haven’t yet resolved. You’ve carried it with you for so long that it is literally in your blood now or your blood vessels, so to speak. Take some time for introspection. Chances are you can think of what this is off the top of your head. It’s time to deal with it because your body is saying that you can’t sweep it under the rug any longer.
Acupuncture for High Blood Pressure
Acupuncture involves stimulating specific points in the body for therapeutic purposes. Puncturing the skin with a very thin needle is the usual method, but practitioners also use heat, pressure friction, suction or the impulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate the points.
The explanation behind all of this is that channels of energy run in regular patterns through the body and over its surface. These energy channels, called meridians, are like rivers flowing through the body irrigating and nourishing the tissues. Acupuncturists maintain that these rivers can become blocked at certain points and that the Acupuncture needles clear these obstructions. The more modern scientific explanation is that needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal chord, and brain.
Contrary to popular belief the needles and the process doesn't hurt. Acupuncture needles are very thin, solid and are made from stainless steel. The point is smooth (not hollow, as with a hypodermic needle) and as a result insertion in the skin is not as painful as having injections for blood samples etc. Neither is there as much bruising as you would get from the use of conventional needles which of course makes this an excellent form of treatment for the elderly or those who for a variety of reason would find themselves liable to bruising very easily.
There has been quite extensive research carried out into the success of Acupuncture as a treatment and the results seem to bear out the use of this form of treatment. It does appear to work.
Important: accurately identify acupuncture points to treat high blood pressure
Tool to replace acupuncture with needles: ElectroAcupuncture
Learn more for ElectroAcupuncture:
Herbs for High Blood Pressure
Herbs have always been used successfully to treat many conditions. And high blood pressure treatment is not an exception. Of course, herbs don't give a dramatic effect like drugs, but their effect is more long term. Also herbs are safer and don't produce dangerous side effects.
The best way to lower blood pressure is to eat a healthy diet with fresh fruit and vegetables. Cook with extra virgin olive oil and garlic, as they are shown to lower LDL cholesterol. Reduce consumption of trans fats, but eat nuts, grains, and whole foods.
Although these natural remedies can help, it may be necessary to take them in conjunction with prescription drugs and follow a healthy diet as suggested. An exercise routine should also be followed. Exercise helps with blood flow and increases metabolism. It is essential that a medical practitioner be consulted before taking any herbs for high blood pressure or stopping the use of prescription drugs.
Although these natural remedies can help, it may be necessary to take them in conjunction with prescription drugs and follow a healthy diet as suggested. An exercise routine should also be followed. Exercise helps with blood flow and increases metabolism. It is essential that a medical practitioner be consulted before taking any herbs for high blood pressure or stopping the use of prescription drugs.
The scientific basis of acupuncture in the treatment of high blood pressure ( by Traditional Chinese Medicine)
Everything Starts with Energy
At the heart of Chinese Reflexology and Traditional Chinese Medicine is the concept of Qi. This is life force energy. It’s the energy of creation and it flows through your body just like blood circulates through your arteries and veins.The human body has 12 primary channels or pathways for Qi to flow. The pathways are like a circulatory system for energy. When your Qi is flowing as it should, your body is in a state of balance. You feel energized, alive and healthy. However, when your Qi is disrupted, this disharmony eventually shows up as physical symptoms in your body if the Qi imbalance continues for an extended period of time.
It’s easy to understand this when you compare the flow of Qi to a river. If the river is flowing smoothly, then the ecosystem is in balance. However, if the river is obstructed, sediment begins to accumulate and eventually plugs up the river, leading to problems both upstream and downstream.
Stress can constrict the flow of Qi in your body leading to obstructed energy in some areas of your body and not enough flowing to others. To return to balance, you need to ensure that your Qi is flowing smoothly and abundantly throughout your body.
Energy Disharmonies Related to High Blood Pressure
It’s interesting to note that you can actually feel hypertension when taking someone’s pulse. Feeling the pulse is one of the major diagnostic tools in Traditional Chinese Medicine. At first, all pulses feel the same, but over time with lots of practice, you begin to notice the subtle differences in people’s pulses. Some are slow, deep and weak. Others feel rapid, close to the surface and pulsate strongly.For high blood pressure, the pulse often feels very tense like a rope would feel when you’re pulling a heavy load. When the rope is sitting in a pile, it’s very loose and relaxed. When you pull on it like in a tug of war, the rope feels very taut. There are also other types of pulses associated with high blood pressure and these different pulses give clues about the different energy disharmonies going on in a person’s energy meridians.
For high blood pressure, the two energy meridians that are most commonly involved with hypertension are:
Acupuncture treatments for high blood pressure almost always involve points that treat disharmonies in the Kidney and Liver meridians. Additional acupuncture points are selected based on the other energy disharmonies present in one’s body. People are diagnosed according to “zang fu” patterns. These patterns describe excesses or deficiencies in the organs and energy meridians of the body.
Some of the most common patterns associated with high blood pressure include:
- Kidney meridian
- Liver meridian
Acupuncture treatments for high blood pressure almost always involve points that treat disharmonies in the Kidney and Liver meridians. Additional acupuncture points are selected based on the other energy disharmonies present in one’s body. People are diagnosed according to “zang fu” patterns. These patterns describe excesses or deficiencies in the organs and energy meridians of the body.
Some of the most common patterns associated with high blood pressure include:
- Liver fire
- Liver fire with a deficiency of Kidney Yin
- A deficiency in both Yin and Yang
- Damp obstruction
Explaining each of these patterns can get pretty complicated. It’s way too much information for this article, but it would definitely be interesting fodder for an online workshop! If you’re curious to learn more, you can always Google these terms as there are many online resources discussing Traditional Chinese Medicine.
I do caution against self-diagnosis. Zang fu pattern diagnosis is usually more complicated than simply matching your symptoms to a description of the zang fu pattern. In real life, people don’t follow textbook descriptions.
Sure, there are a few people who are textbook cases, but most people display a broad range of symptoms and it’s the interaction of the symptoms that can make them appear completely opposite of what you would expect.
That’s why Chinese Reflexology is so awesome and effective because you don’t have to figure out what the underlying zang fu patterns are. When you know all of the points in this system of Chinese Reflexology—over 50 in total—and you practice them regularly and consistently, your body knows what to do to bring your Qi into balance.
I do caution against self-diagnosis. Zang fu pattern diagnosis is usually more complicated than simply matching your symptoms to a description of the zang fu pattern. In real life, people don’t follow textbook descriptions.
Sure, there are a few people who are textbook cases, but most people display a broad range of symptoms and it’s the interaction of the symptoms that can make them appear completely opposite of what you would expect.
That’s why Chinese Reflexology is so awesome and effective because you don’t have to figure out what the underlying zang fu patterns are. When you know all of the points in this system of Chinese Reflexology—over 50 in total—and you practice them regularly and consistently, your body knows what to do to bring your Qi into balance.
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