Hypertension and Acupuncture

Essential Hypertension is the most common form of high-blood pressure in the United States with over 90 percent of the reported cases for “high blood-pressure”.  When hypertension is termed ‘essential’, it means that there is no known cause for the high-blood pressure in the body.  In the absence of kidney malfunction or heart muscle disease, the primary cause of hypertension is ‘unknown’.  

As you may expect, with Chinese Medicine we look upon this situation a bit differently.  Essential Hypertension is usually a condition of imbalance between the Sympathetic Nerve Systems (yang) and the Parasympathetic Nerve System (yin) which in turn affects the overall Blood Vessel Systems and Organ Systems. 

When we are in stressful situations, our bodies need to have the blood supply diverted to the muscles so that we can act immediately.  We are still genetically “wired” to run away from the tiger about to pounce upon us from the bushes.  When the muscles have blood then they can act.   The sympathetic nerve system accomplished this change of blood flow by tightening the blood vessels and organs and forcing our blood into the muscles.  When the threat is gone then our Parasympathetic Nerve system relaxes the blood vessels and directs that blood flow back to our organs for digestion and detoxification of the body.  This system worked wonderfully until the modern age.

In our constantly stressful day-to-day lifestyle, this elegant system of balance is forced out of balance.  Stressful situations from our work, home, finances, family, etc continue to act upon our bodies much like the tiger about to pounce.  This creates a constant level of tension in our organ systems and nerve systems. This is what is meant when we say someone has “Liver Qi Stagnation”.  Over time this imbalance becomes our new “normal” and our blood-pressure begins to rise.  Our internal organs become tight and hardened due to the lack of blood flowing smoothly through them.  In-turn this creates heat, toxins, impurities and inflammation in the body.  These will destroy tissue health, reduces immunity, weakens our bones and tightens our muscles. 

When our Organ Systems tighten, our heart muscle and arteries attempt to compensate for this resistance and they in turn ‘raise our blood pressure” by beating harder and tightening the arteries.  This type of hypertension starts out variable and can change from day to day, or in some cases, hour to hour.  Over time this condition of increased blood-pressure becomes the new normal and we have ‘essential hypertension’ on a consistent basis.

The rule of thumb is that if there is hypertension in the body then there must be congestion in the organs.  The danger of this continual pattern is that our organs no longer digest our food which in turn creates imbalances in our nutrition.  Our muscles become tight and painful.  Our sleep patterns are disrupted which prevents our ‘repair’ functions which occur only during the deep sleep at night.  All in all, our energy levels drop which affects our ability to fight off disease and illness. We end up weaker, sicker, tired, and depressed. 

Acupuncture can help the body recover from this situation by rebalancing the Nerve, Organ, Muscle and Vascular systems.  By rebalancing these systems the hypertension can be lowered and overtime maintained in healthier ways.  By releasing the trapped energies in the organs and muscles and relaxing the taunt nerve systems, acupuncture can promote healing, wellness, physical and emotional balance, as well as breaking the vicious cycle of ‘essential hypertension’.