Blowing A Gasket

Women suffering from pregnancy hypertension may be advised not to take some or all of the five classes of drugs, although the doctor must weigh the risks of the medication against the risks of hypertension. In moderate cases, proper diet and exercise may be the best prescription until after the birth, when blood pressure will settle back to whatever its natural level will be and the need for drugs can be looked at again.

For all people, relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation may help. Stress contributes to hypertension, in part by causing the release of cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn boost blood pressure. In one recent study at Yale University, volunteers in a small sample group showed measurable relaxation of arteries after sessions of yoga and meditation, although the improvement was not enough to eliminate elevated pressure. Doctors treating hypertension or prehypertension thus do not recommend relaxation as a substitute for diet, exercise and medication. As an adjunct, however--one more way to unknot the body--it may help.

No matter what form hypertension treatment takes, patients have to accept that like diabetes, the disease is one that will never really go away. As pressure comes down, however, the body should begin to heal. Hardened arteries may never regain all their lost limberness, but they do improve. Enlarged hearts change even more dramatically. Cornell's Devereux cites a study in which the portion of the heart that was made up of healthy tissue went from 30% to 75% in patients on medication to control their pressure. Treating elevated cholesterol can help too, clearing fats from the recovering circulatory system.

Manage those kinds of improvements, and even the most severely hypertensive patients can buy themselves many more healthy years. It's that simple transaction--vigilance for life span--that makes blood pressure so worth controlling. There are many diseases that resist everything science can throw at them. This is one you can beat. --With reporting by Melissa August/Washington, Alice Jackson Baughn/New Orleans, Paige Bowers/ Atlanta and Leslie Whitaker/C

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