Zona Plus - Natural and Effective Cardiovascular Health
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Zona Plus - Natural and Effective Cardiovascular Health Details
Manufacturer: Zona HealthBrand: Zona Plus
Model: Zona Plus
Product features:
- The Zona Plus is a natural solution that uses precise handgrip exercises to improve your cardiovascular health.
Customer Reviews of Zona Plus - Natural and Effective Cardiovascular Health
Customer Review: Skeptical about price, mechanism and safety.
Summary: 2 Stars
I will acknowledge up front that I have not purchased nor used this product. I am curious about it. However, I am responding to the prior reviewer who states that īt is a "mystery that more MD's are not promoting the Zona Plus"."I may be able to help clarify that mystery at least for this MD.
COST is not Feasible
The easiest issue to explain is price. A very large number of my patients would not be able to even consider testing this with a price tag so high, Most insurance companies are unlikey to reimburse it. FDA clearance is a not a meaningful term, so it would fall under "experimental" and "uncovered". Given that a very wide range of the most commonly used blood pressure medications are now available generic for about four greenbills a month (and about ten dollars per 3 months) as pioneered by Walmart but now similarly duplicated by several discount pharmacies, including ones locally to most towns -- even a person on 2-3 medications would needs years to pay off this device.
SAFETY FIRST
However, the greater issues for me regard safety and mechanism of action. I started as a PhD. During this time cardiovascular regulation including blood pressure was the dominant theme of my research, publications and literature reading with an emphasis on individual variations in reactions to and recovery from different stress states -- including isometric handgrip versus aerobic exercise. Since completing medical school, I have worked with the clinical challenge of regulating blood pressure on nearly a daily basis. I am not a fan of any one particular medication or method --I find that patients are individuals and they require individually designed treatment programs, some of which have to be pretty flexible and/or creative. While there are people who are very responsive to a low dose of only one medication, others are a challenge on multiple medications. A few have required a "sliding scale" based on their blood pressure being measured daily or more often.
Hwever, there is a particular reason I am not excited about this device which comes from my research experiences before medical school. But first, I want to clarify that I am not automatically biased against all "devices" or nonpharmacologic techiques when one continues to closely monitor the results of therapy. Thus I need to digress briefly.
I have a healthy respect for meditation and for some applicatons of "biofeedback" which help recruit mind and body to work together rather than in opposition. Consistent with this view, I have attempted a few trials of other devices such as the RESPeRATE by loaning the device out for free to patients who really did not want to add another medicine yet. Given the cost of RESPeRate, not covered by insurance, the loaner model could help determine whether they wanted to invest their money. Frankly, the results were mixed. In some it seemed effective and they wanted to buy their own; in others not. That's not too surprising for the same reason that no one drug is ideal for everyone. For the RESPeRATE one potential factor that predicted lack of success seemed to be the presence of diabetes associated with autonomic neuropathy, or disregulation of the branch of the "automatic nervous system" that controls blood pressure, heart rate and other things over which we don't easily exert voluntary control. These persons can have very large swings in blood pressure when changing from supine to seated or standing positions. In the few people I tried with this problem, the RESPeRATE was quite frustrating. Some reported not "feeling good or right" while trying it, and it just didn't seem to work. I don't know if longer use than 1-2 weeks would have been helpful, but these people would not likely have been willing to continue. I would expect the Zona Plus to be even more problematic for them.
ISOMETRIC EXERCISE CAN SIGNIFICANTLY RAISE BLOOD PRESSURE
Here is why. Maximal handgrip exercise (meaning gripping as hard as you can and holding), was the most commonly researched form of isometric exercise for which a large body of literature exists dating back several decades. It was one of the most profound stimuli for raising blood pressure. It beat submerging one's hand in ice water and it beat maximal aerobic exercise (such as treadmill or bicycling studies). In hypertensive persons this effect was reported to produce extraordinarily elevated pressures that I've never seen in clinical settings.
I reviewed this literature in detail as part of the preparation of my doctoral dissertation in the 1980s and intermittently again throughout the 1990s when preparing grant proposals and publications. Thus I learned that many decades ago prior to the required use of committees which scrutinize the safety of experiments performed in humans, there were old studies of maximal isometric handgrip exercise (durations up to 1 minute or less) with blood pressure measured DURING and/or IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS. These were done in "normal" volunteers and in those with hypertension. Even in "normals" this form of exercise produced significantly higher blood pressures than aerobic exercise. In persons with hypertension it was reported to produce staggeringly high blood pressures well over 200 systolically; in some cases higher than I've ever seen. Thus in subsequent years researchers more often used "submaximal" handgrip exercise such as at 25-33%, up to 3-5 minutes, but still relatively limited durations. Watching these submaximal responses in young, normally health persons convinced me that I did not particularly want to encourage it when I later began working with patients who had uncontrolled hypertension.
The reviewers who describe positive results here mostly seem to be measuring their blood pressure at a later time in the day. I notice one review who reported a rise in blood pressure after using the device. Perhaps it goes down then for some, but hard to say what other things were going on. While this is still useful information, it does not reveal what was happening to blood pressures while they were actually performing the exercise or immediately afterwards.
I understand the basic principle that perhaps a challenge (such as in aerobic exercise) stimulates the body to adapt in a beneficial way in order to tolerate it better the next time. With aerobic exercise implemented in a sensible, cautious and if need be in a supervised setting -- these adapation have frequently been seen to improve collateral blood flow in the legs and heart. Furthermore the normal mechanism of response to aerobic exercise is increased cardiac rate and contraction strength while decreasing resistance to flow in the skeletal muscles -- overall improving blood circulation. The mechanisms for isometric exercise were different and often involved an overall constriction or tightening of the blood vessels walls while still ramping up cardiac stimulation. So it is much less clear to me that isometric exercise is similarly beneficial. the product literature explains a 1-2 second test run then a set structured grips of 2 minutes each -- % of maximal grip not disclosed. Even 33% for 3 minutes was pretty demanding in our lab, frequently resulting in the arm shaking, Thus, unfortunately I am concerned that for some people such isometric exercise might carry safety risks that are difficult to predict and to regulate -- particularly for the people this device targets -- those with uncontrolled hypertension.
In part, these risks might depend on whether the person has the anatomical, physiological and biochemical resources to support adaptation or not. It seems reasonable to be somewhat skeptical that the group of people who are already hypertensive is going to be sufficiently adaptable, given known mechanisms by which persistent hypertension can result in thicker and stiffer blood vessel walls. In contast, aerobic exercise can be introduced gently with warmups and very gradual acceleration or lengthened duration. Isometric exercise even if brief, however, potentially could result in high velocity challenge to both the heart and blood vessels that exceeds the rate of their ability to adapt (including to the cerebral circulation).
Hence, I would be concerned that in certain people this device could produce undesired elevations in BP, at least while actively performing the exercise. This problem might be even more enhanced if they are tempted to push the limits of this type of exercise, i.e. holding on longer or harder believing that doing so somehow proves they are stronger. I would also worry about its use by people who may have an aneurysm or weakness in the wall of a blood vessel.
"NATURALNESS" IS DEBATABLE
The product information above doesn't give enough details for me to alleviate these concerns. The claim that it lowers blood pressure "naturally" seems even harder to substantiate. What is natural about gripping something so tightly in your hand that your whole arm shakes?
Description of Zona Plus - Natural and Effective Cardiovascular Health
The Zona Plus is a small handheld isometric therapy device that has been scientifically proven to improve cardiovascular health. Completing the Zona Plus therapy only requires 12 minutes 5 days a week... that's all!The therapy is simple. First, you squeeze as hard as you can for 1-2 seconds with your right hand, then with your left, each followed by 10 seconds of rest. Next you're directed through four 2-minute sessions, 2 with each hand, separated by 1-minute rest periods. And you just need to do 5 therapy sessions a week to see improvements in your cardiovascular health.
Research indicates that there may be two major measurable effects upon the body caused by Zona Plus therapy. One is improvement in endothelial dysfunction and the other is improved vagal function (a "relaxing" effect). The medical theory for how the isometric therapy devices lower blood pressure is that the combined effects of improved vagal (autonomic nervous system) function and improved endothelial function cause the blood vessels to strengthen, dilate, and become more flexible. These changes reduce resistance to blood flow and allow the heart to move blood through the body more effectively.
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