An extra 5 minutes of exercise per day may help lower blood pressure

Adding small amounts of exercise to your daily routine, such as walking up the stairs or riding your bike to run errands, may help lower your blood pressure, and just 5 extra minutes per day can improve your blood pressure. A new study by researchers at UCL and the University of Sydney has found that this holds promise.

the study published in circulationanalyzed health data From 14,761 volunteers who wore activity tracker We will investigate the relationship between daily exercise and blood pressure.

Researchers categorized daily activities into six behaviors:

1. sleep
2. Sedentary behavior (such as continuing to sit)
3. Walk slowly (less than 100 steps per minute)
4. Brisk walking (a pace of over 100 steps per minute)
5. standing
6. more strenuous exercise (Running, cycling, going up and down stairs, etc.).

This data was then used to estimate the impact of replacing one type of activity with another. Researchers found that when inactivity was replaced with 5 minutes of exercise; systolic blood pressure (SBP) 0.68 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) diastolic blood pressure (DBP) increases by 0.54mmHg.

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

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

The findings highlight that even everyday activities that increase your heart rate, such as cycling, climbing stairs, and short runs, can help maintain healthy blood pressure.

Dr Joe Blodgett, lead author of the study from the UCL Institute of Surgery, Interventional Science and Sport, Exercise and Health, said: 'Our findings show that for most people, exercise is not about doing too much strenuous exercise. “This suggests that this is the key to lowering blood pressure.” forms of exercise such as walking.

“The good news is that whatever you are, physical abilityit doesn't take long to have a positive impact on blood pressure. What's unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all activities that resemble exercise, from walking up and down the stairs to short errands on a bike. Many of them can be incorporated into daily life.

“For people who do not exercise much, walking had some positive effects on blood pressure. However, if you want to change blood pressure, increasing the load on the cardiovascular system through exercise has the greatest effect. Masu.”

Researchers combined data from six ProPASS consortium studies involving 14,761 people in five countries to examine how daily exercise behavior was associated with blood pressure.

Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device worn on their thigh to measure their activity 24 hours a day and also had their blood pressure measured.

Participants' average 24-hour day consisted of approximately 7 hours of sleep, 10 hours of sedentary activity such as sitting, 3 hours of standing, 1 hour of slow walking, 1 hour of brisk walking, and a little It consisted of 16 minutes of motor activity. such as running and cycling.

The research team used this data to estimate the effect on blood pressure of replacing one behavior with another over a period of time. We modeled what would happen if

Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, co-senior author of the study from the Charles Perkins Center and the University of Sydney's School of Medicine and Health, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest global health problems, but there may be a relatively accessible way to treat it. ” he said. In addition to medicines, we also address the problem.

“The discovery that as little as 5 minutes of extra exercise or vigorous incidental activity per day may be associated with lower readings shows how short bursts of high-intensity exercise can help control blood pressure. It emphasizes how powerful it is.”

Hypertension, a condition in which blood pressure levels are consistently elevated, affects 1.28 billion adults and is one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide. can cause a stroke, heart attackcan cause heart failure, kidney damage, and many other health problems, and is often referred to as the “silent killer” because it has no symptoms.

Professor Mark Hammer, co-senior author of the study from UCL Surgery and Interventional Sciences and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said: 'Previous research in this area has been limited to highly controlled studies using supervised or prescribed exercise programmes. It came from an exercise training study.

“The difficulty with this type of research is that, although effective in lowering blood pressure, people typically return to sedentary habits once they finish the program. Our study is unique and Because it has been observed that free-living physical activity that occurs in daily life is likely to be much more sustainable in the long term.

“Wearable activity tracking devices, etc. smart watchThe accelerometer, similar to the one used in this study, is becoming an increasingly important tool for patients to track physical activity habits and manage risk factors such as high-intensity exercise. blood pressure. ”

“Our findings demonstrate how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium can be for identifying relatively subtle patterns of movement, sleep, and sedentary behavior that are of great clinical and public health importance. It shows.”