EXERCISING FOR AS LITTLE AS FIVE MINUTES A DAY MAY HELP LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE

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EXERCISING FOR AS LITTLE AS FIVE MINUTES A DAY MAY HELP LOWER  BLOOD PRESSURE

Findings show the importance of activities that raise heart rate for blood pressure control.




New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity—such as uphill walking or stair-climbing—to your day may help lower blood pressure.

The study, published in Circulation, was carried out 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 reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviors with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running, and cycling was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure.

Joint senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the ProPASS Consortium from the Charles Perkins Centre, said: "High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality, there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication."

"The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasizes how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management."

Hypertension, or a consistently elevated blood pressure level, is one of the biggest causes of premature death globally. Affecting 1.28 billion adults around the world, it can lead to stroke, heart attack, 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 across the day is associated with blood pressure.

Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure day and night.

Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behavior (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and vigorous exercise such as running, cycling, or stair climbing.

The team statistically modeled what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behavior for another to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behavior with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 percent at a population level.

First author Dr. Jo Blodgett from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health said: "Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is critical to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.

"The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn't take long to positively affect blood pressure. What's unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running for a bus to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.

"For those who don't do a lot of exercise, walking still has some positive benefits for blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect."

Professor Mark Hamer, joint senior author of the study and ProPASS Deputy Director from UCL, said: "Our findings show how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium are for identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep, and sedentary behavior that have significant clinical and public health importance."





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