New tools

Hello, World! Time to get back on track, aided by my new tool sets. Wow! Things are really moving forward.

Alzheimer's and dementia run in my family. My maternal grandfather died in an institution at 59. When my blood pressure reached a stasis of 145/95, my doctor told me it was a recipe for dementia. Three months ago, my aunt (my mother's sister) was diagnosed with dementia -- after a many year struggle with high blood pressure.

I am on blood pressure medication, but the medication really only keeps me from having a stroke (for which I'm very grateful), but it does not bring my BP within normal range. I had been researching and trying various things to lower my numbers, all to little avail. So when my aunt was diagnosed, and my average blood pressure was running at 161/104, I decided I needed to ramp up my research, quickly.

Who knew? Apparently not the doctors. I discovered that my blood pressure is due to my shallow breathing. I had long since discovered that it had nothing to do with stress, or drinking caffeine, or any number of other things that are usually touted as causing hypertension.

I blame it on my Scandinavian heritage. (My maternal grandfather was the first generation of my Swedish ancestors to have been born in the US.) I have to laugh -- a friend posted a link on FaceBook yesterday of a map of average breast cup size in the world. No, really! Scandinavians are 5's all the way (on a scale of 1 - 5)!

Perhaps I shouldn't blame it on the Scandinavians; rather blame it on the prudish yet fashion obsessed Americans who are scandalized if you're not holding those boulders under wraps. At my size, that involves a band so tight it restricts my breathing! Seriously! I always knew bras were hellishly uncomfortable, no matter what type I wore, but I really started to understand it when I started my new regimen of meditation and Chi Gung breathing and discovered I couldn't do it if I was wearing a bra!

I actually made the discovery about the breathing from watching a short video about a machine that aids in breathing. People were lowering their blood pressure by using it just 20 minutes twice a day. I couldn't immediately lay my hands on the $300 for the machine, so I researched further. I found that it was really just a device to help the person focus on their breathing with music and would help them to regulate their breathing.

I already knew how to breathe from Chi Gung exercises I was doing about 10 years ago. I knew it helped me to lose 10 pounds, but since I wasn't aware of my HTN at the time, I wasn't monitoring that. So I tried just lying in bed and breathing for 20 minutes, but I quickly found myself dreading it -- even though I knew it was lifesaving, but it was so difficult to keep focused.

Then I remembered the EquiSync products I had found online. A series of meditational aids using binaural beat technology. I had never been able to focus and meditate, to really get "into the silence," and I began to think that may partly have been from my breathing as well. Buying EquiSync's entire suite of CD's was less than $100, and far more affordable than the breathing aid. Plus, it would be multi-purpose -- not only might it lower my BP, but it could perhaps help me to meditate which I knew was absolutely necessary to stimulate my spiritual, emotional, and psychological growth.

Next up: My life since EquiSync