Can Hydrotherapy Help With Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure is the ultimate “cause and affect” affliction. Is high blood pressure the result of mounting stress, poor dietary choices and other factors, or is it the root cause of other medical problems like hypertension and heart attacks? Based on the research so far, it appears both cases are likely.
Whatever the ultimate impact of high blood pressure on you or your loved ones (whether it’s a cause or outcome), the fact still remains that it’s a serious condition that deserves constant attention. High blood pressure is associated with numerous medical conditions and diseases, including:
• Heart failure
• Vascular disease
• Hypertension
• Vision loss
• Kidney malfunction
• Coronary artery disease
• Stroke
Blood pressure medication certainly helps, but side effects are always a consideration. For a more natural form of high blood pressure therapy, you should consider using a hot tub.
There is a lot of controversy about whether hot tub use is good for individuals who suffer with high blood pressure. There are a lot of people who suffer with this medical condition that would love to enjoy a warm soak in a hot tub but are afraid to. So, if you are concerned do consult consult your doctor.
When you are lying horizontally in a hot tub, rather than being vertical your heart no longer has to pump blood against gravity in order to recirculate blood from your extremities, so its output, and your blood pressure therefore is reduced.
1. Heat: causes your blood vessels to dilate. The wider the radius of your blood vessels, the less resistance your heart has to pump against. This means less pressure in the circulatory system.
1. Losing water: You may be in a big bucket of water but you’re still sweating the water you do have in your body into that bucket. With less fluid in your system your heart can take a break. Losing Sodium: Sodium retains water, so the more sodium you sweat out, the less water you will retain, compounding the effect mentioned above.
2. Mental relaxation: Your blood pressure drops when you are relaxed because your body is taken out of fight or flight mode, it no longer needs to put out as much blood as possible to your muscles, to prepare you for action.
3. Physical relaxation: Your muscles will loosen and warm up from the hot water, further reducing the need for your heart to have to warm them up and replenish them with nutrients.
Another effect this has is in decreasing resistance. If your muscles are not as tight, the arteries and veins won’t have to work so hard to get blood past them.
5. Temperature regulation: One of your heart’s major jobs is to keep you warm, since the hot water is already doing this, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.
Using hot tubs for therapy should be treated in a serious manner and guidance followed. carefully.
The effects of hot tubs dropping your blood pressure too much can be: dizziness, fainting, weakness, light-headedness, reduced ability to concentrate, blurred vision and fatigue, all mainly from a lack of blood flow to the brain.
The longer you’re in the hot tub the more powerful impact these effects will have on you.
l. Vasoconstriction: Once the air that’s cooler than the water you were just in hits your skin, your blood vessels and pores will constrict. This constriction will increase the pressure in the cardiovascular system. Think about putting your thumb over the garden hose nozzle.
II. Orthostatic hypotension: Since you’ve depleted a significant amount of fluid and it hasn’t been pumping forcefully back to your heart your blood pressure will temporarily drop. This can cause symptoms of low blood pressure immediately after standing up from the hot tub. If you have low blood pressure to start with, once you stand up it’s going to be difficult for your body to return to it’s regular blood pressure levels due to having to antagonise all of the factors hot tubs impose on you, particularly gravity.
lll. Rebound hypertension: Your body is programmed to maintain homeostasis so your blood pressure will rise again once you’re on your feet. If you have high blood pressure, in general this extreme fluctuation may exacerbate your high blood pressure and cause hypertensive symptoms which you may only experience when stressed or at random times when your blood pressure peaks.
Although unlikely if you are in generally good health, the possible effects of your blood pressure increasing after getting out of the hot tub are pulsating pounding, especially in the back of your head, fatigue, confusion, shortness of breath, anxiety, nosebleed, pounding chest, chest pain or irregular heartbeat.
Tips:
a) Don’t stay in the hot tub for longer than 15 minutes at a time. Consult with your Doctor as to your own blood pressure monitor. If going in or getting out of a hot tub provokes you to have any symptoms, it’s a good idea to get your blood pressure checked. These symptoms may be an indicator that you’re regularly walking around with low or high blood pressure. Both hypotension and hypertension can be signs of other conditions and could result in a stroke or heart attack.