According to new research, moving a little more each day may be enough to help reduce blood pressure.
Above all, it would be a question of changing certain (bad) daily habits, such as preferring the stairs to the elevator.
According to the researchers, a difference can be observed in affected patients from five minutes of additional physical activity per day.
A cure for hypertension within everyone’s reach? According to a study carried out by an international team of researchers led by the University of Sydney (USyd) and University College London (UCL), five minutes of extra activity per day could reduce blood pressure. Published on November 6 in the journal Circulation their work is based on monitoring the activities of 14,761 people from five countries, who wore an accelerometer on their thigh to measure their blood pressure day and night. Their activities were then classified into six categories, namely sitting, standing, sleeping, slow walking, brisk walking and more strenuous exercise (running, cycling, stair climbing).
Verdict? If a clinically significant change in blood pressure is seen with 20 to 27 minutes of additional exercise, moving just five minutes more per day already helps improve the situation. According to the researchers, for example, preferring the stairs to the elevator in daily life or even going shopping and going to work by bike could thus make it possible to reduce systolic blood pressure (SBP) by around 0.68 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) approximately 0.54 mm Hg.
“It doesn’t take long to have a positive effect”
“The fact that doing just five extra minutes ofexercise per day may be associated with significantly lower blood pressure readings, highlighting the effectiveness of short bursts of more intense movement for blood pressure management. analyzes Emmanuel Stamatakis, co-senior author of the study, professor at USyd and director of the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) consortium.
“The good news is that regardless of 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 activities type exercise, from running to catch the bus to a short bike ride, many of which can be incorporated into daily routines”, agrees Dr Jo Blodgett, first author of the study, from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences at UCL. And to specify: “For those who don’t exercise a lot, walking still has positive effects on blood pressure,” she assures. “But if you want to change your blood pressure, it is by putting more strain on the cardiovascular system through exercise that you will get the greatest effect.”
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High blood pressure: are you one of the 17 million French people affected?
As a reminder, we speak of hypertension when the blood pressure in the arteries is too high, in other words when it exceeds 12, a pressure between 8 and 12 being considered normal. However, this chronic disease which turns out to be the most common in the world, with 1.28 billion people affected, is a risk factor for stroke, heart attack or even heart failure.
Due to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, nearly 95% of French people do not have sufficient physical activity, according to ANSES.
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