An extra five minutes of exercise per day could help to lower blood pressure

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-19 00:27:26 | Updated at 2024-11-25 14:37:07 6 days ago

An extra five minutes of exercise per day could help to lower blood pressure
Medical Xpress / University College London / Circulation ^ | Nov. 7, 2024 | Joanna M. Blodgett et al

Posted on 11/18/2024 4:05:09 PM PST by ConservativeMind

Adding small amounts of exercise into daily routine, such as climbing stairs or cycling errands, could help to reduce blood pressure, with just five additional minutes a day estimated to yield improvements, finds a new study.

The study analyzed health data from 14,761 volunteers who wore activity trackers to explore the relationship between daily movement and blood pressure.

—The researchers split daily activity into six behaviors:

—Sleep

—Sedentary behavior (such as sitting)

—Slow walking (cadence less than 100 steps per minute)

—Fast walking (cadence above 100 steps per minute)

—Standing

—More vigorous exercise (such as running, cycling or stair climbing).

They then used this data to estimate the impact of replacing one type of activity with another. They found that replacing any less active behavior with five minutes of exercise could lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 0.68 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 0.54mmHg.

At a population level, a 2mmHg reduction in SBP and a 1mmHg reduction in DPB is equivalent to an approximately 10% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.

The study estimated that these "clinically meaningful" improvements could be achieved with as little as 20 additional minutes of exercise per day for SBP and 10 additional minutes of exercise per day for DBP.

The findings emphasize that even everyday activities that raise heart rate, such as cycling, climbing stairs or short bursts of running, can have benefits for healthy blood pressure.

"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 climbing the stairs to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...

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A little extra movement, here and there, adds up.

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2 posted on 11/18/2024 4:05:38 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)

To: ConservativeMind

3 posted on 11/18/2024 4:11:24 PM PST by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)

To: ConservativeMind

I’m 63 years old and I’ve had high blood pressure for about 25 years. I’m on three blood pressure meds and they keep my blood pressure at around 140/90. I started biking about a year ago and now my blood pressure runs about 120/65. I bike for 30 minutes up and down hills in my neighborhood every other day. I’ve been stunned at the effect it has had on my blood pressure. I still take the meds, but I’m happy with my blood pressure.

4 posted on 11/18/2024 4:19:01 PM PST by cantfindagoodscreenname (I really hate not knowing what was said in the deleted posts....)

To: cantfindagoodscreenname

5 posted on 11/18/2024 4:23:56 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET

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