Yoga if incorporated in daily life can keep hypertension away.

About 20 per cent of adults worldwide suffer from hypertension, but most are unaware of the disease, since it does not produce any symptoms in majority. Therefore, this disease may also be called “silent killer”.

Hypertension is not a disease, but a sign of underlying problems due to imbalance in physical, emotional and mental levels resulting in imbalance of the nervous system, says Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy Director Dr B T Chidananda Murthy.

An unstable mind leads to unstable body, which adversely affects the cardiovascular system producing various symptoms one of which is an increase in blood pressure or hypertension.

"The moment stress is placed on the body, whether physical or mental, oxygen demand increases and so does the work of the heart. If this happens over a period the heart becomes permanently strained and eventually stops properly functioning leading to serious and even lethal complications," he explains.

"Yoga improves physical, mental and spiritual health. It makes physiological reflexes, reactions and responses more alert, sensitive and subtle," says Dr Murthy.

The yoga asanas are designed to ensure that their effects reach to the very ends of peripheral nerve tips, to the finest and most slender capillaries and even to each and every cell of the body, he says.

Yoga is designed to remove psychological stress and its ill effects on body. Yoga includes practice of Asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing exercises), Yoga Nidra (meditation) and Yogic Kriyas.

Dr. Murthy says that all yogic practices decrease the level of lactic acid, a chemical by-product of stress produced in muscle tissue when the oxygen supply is inadequate. Lactic acid is secreted during rest and notably during sleep, he says.

Moreover, meditation controls the adrenaline release, a hormone secreted as a direct reaction to stressful situation increasing heartbeats, blood pressure, sugar-levels and muscle activity, he says.

A positive mental attitude is of basic importance to health and longevity, says Dr Murthy.