Researchers Say You Can Lower Blood Pressure in Weeks Doing This

4 min readNew research suggests a mindfulness practice can help lower blood pressure. Several studies back up this concept. While mindfulness may help lower blood pressure, it shouldn’t be the only way you manage it. You’re far from alone if you have high blood pressure—nearly half of American adults do, too. But the condition comes with a risk of serious complications like heart attack and stroke, making it crucial to manage.While treatment is individual, doctors usually recommend a mix of medication and lifestyle changes to help get your numbers back down. But while diet, exercise, and stress management are crucial components you can control, a new study suggests there’s another health hack to consider: practicing mindfulness.The study, which was published in the journal Cardiology Clinics, raises questions about how positive psychology and mindfulness may fit into blood pressure management. Here’s what experts say about this latest news.Meet the experts: Joseph Daibes, DO, interventional cardiologist at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital; Hillary Ammon, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Women’s Emotional WellnessWhat did the study find?The study analyzed data from 18 randomized controlled trials that investigated psychological and mindfulness interventions to try to support participants’ mental or physical health. The included trials covered a wide range of programs, including app-based services and in-person psychological sessions. Most of the programs lasted between six and 12 weeks.Overall, the researchers discovered that interventions that included things like mindfulness, optimism training, and gratitude yielded the largest consistent improvements in blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors.A 12-week spirituality-based digital program was associated with one of the largest reductions in blood pressure. This digital program reduced systolic blood pressure (the maximum pressure in your arteries when your heart beats) by 7.6 points. Other programs also helped lower blood pressure, including an eight-week app-based intervention that had participants do weekly sessions, along with small “microtasks” that encouraged them to exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet. One program also had participants increase their step count by 1,800 steps each day.Overall, some kind of daily mindfulness practice seemed to be the most effective for participants. Because of this, the researchers wrote that “these associations, replicated across diverse populations, suggest that fostering psychological wellbeing may present a viable pathway for cardiovascular disease prevention.”Why might this work?A few studies suggest mindfulness could help with blood pressure management. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that adults in an eight-week mindfulness program saw a larger drop in blood pressure compared to those who just received standard care (though the study itself lasted six months). Another small 2022 study linked a 12-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program with a drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in women in Iran.Experts say there could be a few reasons behind this effect. “Blood pressure is influenced by much more than simply the heart and blood vessels,” says Joseph Daibes, DO, interventional cardiologist at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital. “Our nervous system, stress response, sleep, behaviors, and psychological state all play a role.”If you’re constantly feeling stressed, your sympathetic or “fight-or-flight” nervous system can stay activated, leading to elevations in blood pressure over time, he explains.“Mindfulness can help reduce that physiologic stress response by allowing the body to spend more time in a calmer, parasympathetic state,” Dr. Daibes adds.Positive thinking and mindfulness can also help drive down stress, worry, and frustration, says Hillary Ammon, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Women’s Emotional Wellness. “By choosing to be present in the moment—whether it be through a guided mindfulness exercise, or simply attempting to be focused in your current experience—you are preventing yourself from lamenting on past experiences that cannot be changed and worrying about future experiences that have not happened yet,” she says.Gratitude and optimism can also be helpful here, but may work a little differently. “They can improve resilience, change how we perceive and respond to stress, and are also associated with healthier behaviors such as exercising regularly, sleeping better, eating more thoughtfully, and adhering to medical treatment,” Dr. Daibes says.What’s the takeaway?Mindfulness isn’t for everyone (for some people, it can make anxiety worse), but there are different ways you can approach it. The Mayo Clinic has a few mindfulness exercises to try if you want to get started, and Ammon says it may take some trial and error to see what works best for you.“Alternatively, a simpler approach could be to truly be mindful in the moment,” she says. “If you’re getting stuck in your thoughts, try to name your surroundings.” You can also try changing positions, like standing up if you’re sitting, and then noticing the shift that behavior has on your body.But while mindfulness may be helpful for blood pressure, it shouldn't be the only thing you do. “Consider mindfulness, gratitude, optimism, and stress management adjuncts to established blood-pressure treatment, not replacements for it,” Dr. Daibes says.Carina Hsieh, MPH, is the deputy features editor of Women’s Health. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience working in media and has covered everything from beauty, fashion, travel, lifestyle, pets, to health. She began her career as an intern in the fashion closet at Cosmopolitan where she worked her way up to Senior Sex & Relationships Editor. While covering women’s health there, she discovered her passion for health service journalism and took a break to get her Masters in Public Health. Post-grad school, she worked as a freelance writer and as The Daily Beast’s first Beauty, Health, and Wellness Reporter. Carina is an alum of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Yale School of Public Health. She and her French Bulldog, Bao Bao, split their time between Brooklyn and Connecticut. She enjoys reformer Pilates, (slow) running, and smelling the fancy toiletries in boutique fitness class locker rooms.