CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Is it possible that simply changing the way you think can have a positive effect on lowering blood pressure?  The short answer?  Yep! As a matter of fact, in Proverbs 23:7, you’ll find in your Bible that it states that, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  Simply stated, good thoughts or mental well-being will not only help to lower your blood pressure, it will also benefit your entire overall health!  I find it interesting and almost amusing that science in the year 2023 now validates the wisdom scribed back in 700 B.C.  But getting back to the subject of this post….

The research appears to agree that CBT can lower blood pressure.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. This type of therapy is mostly used to treat anxiety and depression and can be useful for other mental and physical health problems such as High Blood Pressure.

Using cognitive and behavior therapy has proven to be so effective that it can be used as an adjunct to medications to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive patients.

In one study, there was a significant reduction from baseline to the second post- test assessment, in systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels from 134+/-9 to 123+/-8 mmHg and from 87+/-5 to 73+/-6 mmHg, respectively.

We live in a stressed world no doubt, and it only makes sense that addressing those stressors via CBT and practicing “good thought thinking” referred to earlier found in the Book of Proverbs, could, and does,  go well beyond the mind to the physical body, having a positive effect on blood pressure.

The moral of this blog?  Good thoughts are necessary to enjoy “the best performance of your life!”

God bless,
DrB

References
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16758078/
academic.oup.com/ajh/article/10/1/9/181419
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335521001674
bmccardiovascdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12872-016-0398-9