An extra five minutes of exercise a day can help lower blood pressure | UCL News

Adding small amounts of exercise to daily life, such as climbing stairs or cycling, can help lower blood pressure, with just five extra minutes a day estimated to make an improvement, says a new study from researchers at UCL and the University of Sydney.

The study was supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in Circulationanalyzed health data from 14,761 volunteers wore activity trackers. examine the relationship between daily movement and blood pressure.

The researchers divided ddaily activities for six types of behavior¹:

1. Sleep
2. WITHsedentary behavior (eg, sitting)
3. WITHslow walking (frequency less than 100 steps per minute)
4. Fbrisk walking (frequency above 100 steps per minute)
5. WITHtan
6. More vigorous exercise (such as running, cycling, or climbing stairs).

They then used this data evaluate the effect of replacing one type of activity with another. They found What Replacing any less active behavior with five minutes of exercise can reduce systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 0.68 mmHg. Art. (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 0.54 mm Hg. Art.².

At the population level, a decrease in SBP by 2 mm Hg. Art. and a decrease in SBP by 1 mm Hg. Art. equivalent to a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk of approximately 10%.

The study estimates that these “clinically significant” 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.³.

The results highlight that even everyday activities that raise your heart rate, such as cycling, climbing stairs or a short run, can have benefits for healthy blood pressure.

Dr Joe Blodgett, first author of the study from UCL Surgery & Interventional Science and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said: “Our findings suggest that for most people, the key to lowering blood pressure is exercise rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.

“The good news is that no matter your physical ability, it won’t take long. have a positive effect on blood pressure. What is unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from climbing stairs to short bike rides, many of which can be integrated into daily life.

“For those For those who don’t exercise much, walking still has a positive effect on blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, increasing your cardiovascular challenge through exercise will have the greatest effect.”

The researchers combined data from six ProPASS Consortium studies covering 14,761 people from five countries to see how movement behavior throughout the day was associated with blood pressure.

Each participant used a portable accelerometer on the hip to measure their activity for 24 hours a day and had their blood pressure measured.

The participants’ average 24-hour day consisted of approximately seven hours of sleep, 10 hours of sedentary behavior such as sitting, three hours of standing, one hour of slow walking, one hour of brisk walking, and just 16 minutes of exercise. for example, running and cycling.

Using this data, the team modeled what would happen if a person replaced one behavior with another every day, to evaluate the effect on blood pressure of replacing one behavior with another over a period of time.

Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, senior author of the study from the Charles Perkins Center and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest health problems worldwide, but there may be relatively affordable ways to treat the problem in addition to medications.

“The finding that doing just five extra minutes of exercise or vigorous episodic activity per day can be associated with noticeably lower blood pressure readings highlights how effective short periods of higher-intensity movement can be for controlling blood pressure.”

Hypertension, characterized by persistently elevated blood pressure levels, affects 1.28 billion adults and is one of the largest causes of premature death worldwide. It can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and many other health problems. Due to its lack of symptoms, it is often called the “silent killer”.

Professor Mark Hamer, co-author of the study from UCL Surgery & Interventional Science and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said: “Previous research in this area has been based on carefully controlled training studies with supervised or prescribed exercise programs. The difficulty with such studies is that although they are aimed at lowering blood pressure, after the end of the program people usually return to their sedentary habits. Our study is unique in that we observed that leisurely physical activity performed as part of daily life can produce benefits that are likely to be much more sustainable in the long term.

“Wearable activity tracking devices such as smartwatches, not unlike the accelerometers used in this study, are becoming increasingly important tools for patients to track their physical activity habits and manage risk factors such as high blood pressure.”

“Our results show how powerful research platforms such as the ProPASS consortium are for identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep and sedentary behavior that have highly important clinical and public health implications.”

¹ Of the six behaviors observed, five were classified as less active than exercise: sleeping, being sedentary, walking slowly (less than 100 steps per minute), fast walking (more than 100 steps per minute), and standing.

² High blood pressure (hypertension) is classified as a value above 140/90 mmHg. Art. The first number, systolic blood pressure (SBP), measures the pressure on the walls of the arteries as the heart contracts. The second number, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), measures the pressure on the artery walls while the heart muscle rests between beats.

³ An estimated 2 mmHg improvement in SBP. observed when replacing physical activity: ~20 minutes of brisk walking, ~21 minutes of sedentary activity, ~22 minutes of standing, ~26 minutes of slow walking, or ~27 minutes of sleep. It is estimated that an improvement in DBP of 1 mmHg. observed if exercise-like activity replaced ~10 minutes brisk walking, ~11 minutes sedentary time, ~13 minutes sleep, ~14 minutes slow walking or ~15 minutes standing.

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E: m.midgley (at) ucl.ac.uk

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