Breathing for hypertension
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects nearly half (44.4 percent) of adults in the United States.1 It’s a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.2
According to one study, roughly three quarters of all adults with hypertension lived with uncontrolled blood pressure in 2019–2020.3 Can controlling the way you breathe help lower hypertension? Google thinks so. The tech company published a study in the journal Frontiers in Physiology in January 2024 showing that users of a breathing app that slows breathing had measurably reduced blood pressure readings compared to controls.