Float Therapy and Blood Pressure: What You Need to Know

If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you’re likely already well aware of the importance of managing your hypertension. Hypertension can lead to a number of serious complications, including kidney damage, vision loss, heart failure, and even dementia.

You and your medical provider have also likely reviewed the risk factors for high blood pressure so that you can minimize yours and protect your heart health wherever possible. In some cases, doctors may also prescribe medication to get your blood pressure under control. As you implement your hypertension treatment plan, however, don’t neglect other, natural blood pressure reducers. A study published in 2022 in Frontiers in Neuroscience supports the use of float tanks as natural remedies to lower blood pressure. 

Float tank and high blood pressure: The connection

Most natural ways to reduce blood pressure and improve heart health focus on overall lifestyle changes. Reducing sodium intake, increasing exercise, losing weight, and quitting nicotine use are all common and worthwhile methods of managing hypertension. However, all of these lifestyle changes take sustained effort and time to show results. Meanwhile, as demonstrated in the 2022 Frontiers study, a single 90 minute session in a floatation tank can significantly decrease both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. 

This is particularly helpful when stress levels play a role in your high blood pressure diagnosis. Among the key benefits of floatation therapy are an immediate reduction in anxiety and an increase in feelings of serenity. Float tanks help to gently nudge a stressed-out nervous system out of a state of chronic fight or flight and into a more psychologically and physiologically relaxed state. 

How float therapy works

Of course you’ll want to know more about how float therapy works before you integrate it into your natural ways to reduce blood pressure.

Floatation tank therapy utilizes methods of gentle sensory deprivation to induce a state of deep relaxation. There are minimal auditory or visual stimuli, since you float in a darkened floatation chamber. Both the air and water are kept at the same temperature as your skin. And the salt in the water you float in helps to reduce the sensation of gravity on your body, so that you truly feel as if you’re floating freely, able to fully relax all muscular control.

It may sound daunting if you’ve never tried it before. But in the study this article references, research subjects included 37 participants suffering from one or more anxiety-related disorders, including panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), who showed high levels of anxiety sensitivity. All the participants completed their float sessions and experienced improvements to their anxiety and blood pressure.

Heart health is important, and when yours is at risk, it’s worthwhile to explore a number of ways to reduce your blood pressure. Float tank therapy provides a calming, non-invasive, and immediate way to reduce hypertension and protect your heart health.