Hand grip training for lowering blood pressure?

[Outsidethelines]

Good morning all you helpful people. I’ve just heard a fascinating thing on the Zoe podcast, about hand grip strength and high blood pressure. Apparently, using a hand-held device to strengthen your hand grip over several weeks can effectively lower your blood pressure. I’ve had a look online, and it does seem to be a thing. Did everyone else already know about this, because I didn’t? I have raised BP as well as paroxysmal AF, but my GP and consultant just tell me to take drugs. Nobody has spoken to me about this lifestyle/exercise approach. It seems to be a relatively new finding, so maybe the information hasn’t filtered through yet. Does anyone know more about this please?

[Singwell]

Sounds interesting. I know Dr Tim Spector had had high BP and recently he's said in an interview that he'd had a TIA and it was these incidents that set him off on his journey to research nutrition. If the Zoe people are talking about thus it'll be worth looking into. I find gardening helps my BP btw.

[Outsidethelines in reply to Singwell]

I’m sure gardening really does help - but the weather is so horrible ATM😅

[KMRobbo in reply to Singwell]

Just watched a video on YouTube from " the Journeyman" same idea. Its from 5 years ago!No major studies into it at that time !

[Outsidethelines in reply to KMRobbo]

Thanks, I think I’ve managed to find the video you mean. Will watch it with interest😊

[jeanjeannie50]

I can remember my dad sat squeezing a rubber ball that was especially made for improving hand strength. That must have been about 20 years ago, so the idea is not new.

I'll have a look at the Zoe podcast as I receive them too. Thank you for making us aware. I intend going to the gym and improving my body strength all over.

Jean

[BobD Volunteer in reply to jeanjeannie50]

OH Matron.! I see you are a ball squeezer too! (its an age thing)

[Outsidethelines in reply to BobD]

Fnarr fnarr

[Cha275rL in reply to BobD]

🤣🤣

[Outsidethelines in reply to jeanjeannie50]

Hi Jean, I won’t post a link to the podcast, but it’s the latest one about different types of exercise.

I’m also looking to improve my body strength generally, but I’d never heard of a link between grip strength and BP before. I so wish GPs would talk about lifestyle changes as a first resort, rather than just prescribing more drugs.

[jeanjeannie50 in reply to Outsidethelines]

Thank you. I will find it in my emails.

No, I'd not heard of a link between grip strength and BP either.

Yes, I wish GP's would talk about lifestyle changes before giving tablets. I caught a bit of an episode of a doctors surgery programme recently, the lady was saying she had bowel problems and awful wind. The doctors answer was to give her peppermint capsules!! I shouted at the t.v. 'No it's her diet'.

Jean

[waveylines in reply to jeanjeannie50]

I think if it isn't on their screens pathway they done say. I absolutely agree with you Jean.... I had simular problems for a number of years that worsened with time.... No doctor thought about gluten or my diet. Turned out am coeliac. The difference that has made is massive.

[jeanjeannie50 in reply to waveylines]

Yes you're right. It's so annoying, diet should be the first thing doctors suspect for bowel or stomach problems. We have a doctor at our surgery who is a dietician, when I had gallstones she reeled off fat free recipes for me to try and told me about dry frying (cant remember anything about it now). I was most impressed. pills can mask a condition but I don't think they can cure it unless antibiotics.

Jean

[waveylines in reply to jeanjeannie50]

Exactly most pills are not a cure but simply used to manage a condition. I'm sure the NHS would save a lot of money if health problems were explored more thoroughly and deeply, looking for a resolution rather than just managing symptoms. It's such a false economy... Though I guess big pharma loves it!! Lol....

[Singwell in reply to Outsidethelines]

Amen to that!

[Billiam54]

Saw this as part of a trial on a Michael Mosley programme some time ago. It works.

[Outsidethelines in reply to Billiam54]

Thank you so much for the tip-off, Billiam. I’ve just found an article by Michael Mosley about just this. So interesting. His article was written in 2016, following an experiment with the University of Nottingham. So it’s not new news at all. And it’s not expensive or time consuming to give it a go. So why do my GPs suggest only drugs and more drugs? One of them even talked about putting me on a ‘cocktail’ of different drugs. I despair.

[Peacefulneedshelp in reply to Outsidethelines]

I am sure they get perks and rewards for pushing the drugs, in fact I know they do. I have friend that was a drug rep, here isn the USA she quit because of the way the drug companies push drugs and market to the doctors.

I suffered for years with Migraines and it turns out MSG and Wheat gluten were causing them. I had to figure that out on my own because no Dr. ever asked me my diet. I did find a chiropractor that did kinesiology or better known as muscle testing that discovered MSG but no one suspected gluten until I read Dr. William Davis's Wheat Belly book.

I always say the best doctors are those that have had issues themselves and did a deep dive into what is wrong with medicine in our day. I call them wounded healers. because they are the only ones who truly understand.

[OldJane]

there is also food research on resistance breath training which also lowers blood pressure. I think though that the efficacy is rahter low, so may not too many folk into a safe zone. Still worth trying. To my shame I bought the breathing device and too soon stopped using it!

[LouieHusky]

I love the Zoe podcasts. I need to catch up with them. Will check this out.

[Qualipop]

Funny that just made me realise that I've seen it work but goodness knows how or why. My husband, a type 2 diabetic has always had raised BP. A couple of ye ars ago he had an operation on his hand for depuytren's (Sp) contracture. The exercises he was givenm afterwards were specifically to increase hand strength and aid healing. There was then a period when h is doctor said how pleased he was that his BP had reduced. We never even thought of a possible connection. His BP is now back to what it was since he stopped the exercises.

[Outsidethelines in reply to Qualipop]

That’s really interesting, thanks Qualipop😊

[Peacefulneedshelp]

I have heard of that and I also ran across a real old remedy from a doctor and researched who just recently died. Dr. Ray Peat. It is claimed that we actually benefit from nose breathing rather than mouth breathing because with mouth breathing we loose too much carbon dioxide through the mouth. To rectify that breathe in a paper bag for a few minutes a couple times a day and that is supposed to lower BP. I know it was used for a person that hyperventilated but I never realized it also lowered BP but that would make sense.

PS. Regular drs never seem to ask about lifestyle/exercise approach. That would take too much time.

[Singwell in reply to Peacefulneedshelp]

James Nestor wrote about the improvement of BP through nose breathing and I do think it's helped mine.

[Tarikor in reply to Peacefulneedshelp]

You are so right. And not just regular docs, but also specialists. All they know are drugs and surgeries. Absolutely nothing else. Which is quite frankly, a disgrace.

[doodle68]

When my late husband had a stroke in 1978 and was paralysed down one side, I took him to see a man who had studied acupuncture and Chinese medicine for 10 years in china. He gave my husband a small quite soft ball which smelt of herb to squeeze to strengthen his hand, to help calm his stress and so lower his blood pressure.

The acupuncture didn't help with the pain but the little ball helped as suggested to strengthen his hand and to calm his stress by distraction I guess.