New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity (such as walking uphill or climbing stairs) to your day can help lower blood pressure.
The study, published in Circulationwas conducted by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL).
Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially lower blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviors with 20 to 27 minutes of exercise a day, including walking uphill, climbing stairs, running and cycling, also led to a clinically significant effect. reduction of blood pressure.
Joint lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the ProPASS consortium at the Charles Perkins Centre, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest health problems globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality, it can there are relatively accessible ways to address the problem. in addition to medications.”
“The finding that doing just five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with significantly lower blood pressure readings emphasizes how powerful short bouts of higher-intensity movement can be for blood pressure control.”
Hypertension, or a consistently high level of blood pressure, is a leading cause of premature death worldwide. It affects 1.28 billion adults worldwide and can cause strokes, heart attacks, heart failure, kidney damage and many other health problems, and is often described as the “silent killer” due to its lack of symptoms.
The research team analyzed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behavior with another throughout the day is associated with blood pressure.
Each participant wore a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure during the day and night.
Daily activity was divided into six categories: sleeping, sedentary behavior (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling, or climbing stairs.
The team statistically modeled what would happen if an individual switched various amounts of one behavior for another to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behavior with 20 to 27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce disease. cardiovascular. up to 28 percent at the population level.
First author Dr Jo Blodgett, from the UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said: “Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to lower blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of exercise. movement like walking.
“The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure. What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running to take a bus or take a short trip run errands by bike, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.
“For those who don’t exercise much, walking still has some positive blood pressure benefits. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more stress on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect.”
Professor Mark Hamer, co-lead author of the study and deputy director of ProPASS at UCL, said: “Our findings show how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium are in identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep and sedentary behaviour, which have important clinical consequences”. and the importance for public health.