Ayurveda and Blood Pressure

This is the force developed by the blood against any unit area of the vessel wall. It is difficult to say exactly what is high blood pressure but an attempt has been made taking into account various facts such as age and sex of the patient.

Age	Blood Pressure
20 years	140/90 mm of Hg
40 years	160/95 mm of Hg
75 years	170/105 mm of Hg

Having BP of the above levels as age increases is indicative that the patient suffers from blood pressure. Out of 75 per cent of the population 15 per cent suffers from high blood pressure problems. It has been noticed that the incidence of high blood pressure is higher among Blacks, the Japanese and those groups who consume larger amounts of salt.

In Ayurveda, blood pressure is not considered a problem of the blood alone but is considered in conjunction with the rasas.

There is no factor responsible for high blood pressure. As is basic in Ayurveda all factors within the 13 parameters – the three doshas, the seven tissues and the three waste products are taken into consideration, while treating the disease.

The various factors are diet and character of the patient which are likely to affect those with high blood pressure complaints.

Aahar (Diet): Excess consumption of alcohol, salt, bitter, sour, root vegetables, greens, fish.

Vihar: Diwaswap (daytime naps), anger, hard work.

Manas – Anger, temper.
Kaal (period) – Sharad (autumn).
Guyton’s physiology.

Importance of salt in the renal body fluid schema for arterial pressure regulation.

When there is excess salt in the body, the osmosity increases and this in turn stimulates the thirst center, making the person drink extra amounts of water to dilute the extra cellular salt to a normal concentration. This obviously increases the extra cellular fluid volume.

The increase in osmosity in the extra cellular fluid also stimulates the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary secretary mechanism, to secrete increased quantities of any diuretic hormone. This hormone in turn causes the kidneys to reabsorb greatly increased quantities of water from the renal tubular fluid before it is excreted as urine, thereby diminishing the volume of urine while increasing the extra cellular volume.

This accumulation of small amount of extra salt in the body can lead to considerable elevation of the arterial pressure. How increased fluid volume elevates the arterial pressure is the role of auto regulation.