Pulse Pressure - Why Bother
to Control It?

By controlling pulse pressure, some people have been able to maintain normal blood pressure. We'll cover how this works.

The simplest blood pressure lowering device is hand grips. Sound strange?

I tried hand grips once, but didn't stick to it. Consequently, I saw no real improvement in my blood pressure readings. But, you might want to give it a try.

Let's see the theory behind it before you make up your mind.

A major factor in hypertension may be a massive change in the operation of the Autonomic Nervous System (the nervous system dealing with body functions and states).

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) comprises the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

During stressful or dangerous situations, the SNS prepares the body for fight or flight by sending the blood into peripheral muscles. Blood flow becomes unbalanced, which is unnatural over the long term.

It also leads to hypertension relating to stress.

Various internal body conditions and outer environmental factors stress the body. If this is continual, hypertension often results.

Poor vasodilation makes this worse

When proper diet and exercise have not been followed, endothelial dysfunction can occur. Endothelial dysfunction involves the inner lining of arteries, which prevents the arteries from dilating properly.

What follows is the restriction of blood flow to peripheral tissues of the body.

The combination of an overactive SNS and endothelial dysfunction pushes blood pressure up.

Now, we can look at what hand grip exercises do for hypertension.

Pulse pressure (PP) is the difference between the systolic and diastolic readings of a single blood pressure measurement. For example, a reading of 145/90 equals a PP of 145 minus 90, or 55.

Any PP over 40 is not good. Usually, whatever lowers PP is good.

Hand grip therapy seems to produce a decrease in the SNS activity, which would balance blood flow throughout the body. It also appears to improve vasodilation directly.

This accounts for the improvement in PP. It is common for blood pressure to drop substantially after a time with this therapy.

Let's say your systolic blood pressure drops from 145 to 130 while your diastolic blood pressure goes from 90 to 85. PP would then drop from 55 to 45.

Very beneficial indeed!

Hand grip therapy is simple

Buy a pair of medium hand grips in the sporting goods section of your favorite store. Then follow this protocol every day for about 12 minutes:

Squeeze one hand grip at about 80 percent of the strength needed to close it all the way for a count of one minute. Then, do the other hand for the same time. Now, squeeze the first hand and then alternate hands until 12 minutes have passed.

Do this at least 5 days a week.

This is a simple easy trial you can do without much cash outlay. Good luck with it.

You will want to do other things to maintain normal blood pressure other than use a blood pressure lowering device like hand grips, so check other suggestions on this site.

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