Medical Today = Reporter Choi Jae-baek

 

Research has shown that exercises such as running or cycling can help lower blood pressure.

 

A study published in 'Circulation' found that exercising for more than 5 minutes a day, such as running or cycling, helps lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

 

High blood pressure not only increases the risk of serious illnesses such as heart disease and stroke but can also lead to death, so efforts are ongoing to find the most scientific way to lower high blood pressure.

The research team explained that exercises such as running, cycling, and climbing stairs help lower blood pressure, and as a result of replacing 21 minutes of sedentary time with exercise, systolic blood pressure decreased by about 2 mmHg.

The research team mentioned that exercise not only has a significant impact on blood pressure but is also an important factor in promoting cardiovascular health. Through this study, they aimed to observe how systolic and diastolic blood pressure patterns vary according to activity patterns over a 24-hour period.

They collected information from 14,761 participants across six observational cohort studies.

We tracked the activity levels of participants who wore wearable recording devices that measured movement for at least one week, with at least 20 hours of activity per day. The researchers categorized and recorded the participants' activities into six items: △sleep △sitting △standing △slow walking △fast walking.

Participants actively exercised for an average of 16 minutes per day, sat for over 10 hours daily, and the average blood pressure of participants was approximately 132/79 mmHg, with about 25% of all participants taking antihypertensive medication.

All cohorts considered covariates such as alcohol consumption, smoking history, and age, and some cohorts additionally considered covariates such as physical mobility and education level.

 

 

The analysis results showed that participants who engaged in more exercise and sleep had lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, while those who spent more time sitting had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

In addition, it was added that when assuming different activities are exchanged for the same amount of time, increasing exercise time contributed most significantly to blood pressure reduction.

For example, researchers explained that replacing activities other than exercise with 5 minutes of exercise each time resulted in a decrease of 0.68 mmHg in systolic blood pressure and 0.54 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure.

The greater the increase in exercise intensity, the more the blood pressure-lowering effect was enhanced. For example, replacing 21 minutes of sedentary time with vigorous exercise reduced systolic blood pressure by 2 mm Hg, and replacing 11 minutes of sedentary time with vigorous exercise reduced diastolic blood pressure by 1 mm Hg.

 

 

On the other hand, replacing the time spent sitting with low-intensity exercise such as walking is estimated to take 95 minutes to lower diastolic blood pressure by 1.

Experts emphasized once again that the fact that significant changes in blood pressure can be observed even after just a few minutes of exercise is encouraging, and they stressed the importance of adding regular exercise to daily life.

They explained that through exercise, the performance and efficiency of human organs and tissues can be improved, which can also enhance blood pressure management. Additionally, they added that increasing exercise intensity can quickly induce physiological changes beneficial to heart health.

 

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Among the diseases to watch out for as the weather gets colder

You have high blood pressure.

Running or cycling for more than 5 minutes a day

If you do the same exercise, systolic and

It is said to help lower diastolic blood pressure.