Recent research indicates that even small increases in physical activity, such as five minutes of uphill walking or stair-climbing daily, can significantly lower blood pressure.
Findings from the international ProPASS Consortium reveal that replacing sedentary time with 20-27 minutes of exercise daily could reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by up to 28%, highlighting the substantial health benefits of moderate exercise.
New research indicates that adding even small amounts of physical activity, such as uphill walking or stair-climbing, to your daily routine could help lower blood pressure.
This study, published in Circulation, was conducted by researchers from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep) Consortium, an international collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL).
Minimal Exercise for Significant Health Benefits
The findings suggest that just five minutes of physical activity per day could potentially reduce blood pressure. Replacing sedentary time with 20-27 minutes of daily exercise—such as uphill walking, stair-climbing, running, or cycling—was estimated to produce a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure.
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, a joint senior author of the study and Director of the ProPASS Consortium at the Charles Perkins Centre, noted, “High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication.”
“The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasizes how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management.”
The Global Impact of Hypertension
Hypertension, or a consistently elevated blood pressure level, is one of the biggest causes of premature death globally. Affecting 1.28 billion adults around the world, it can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage, and many other health problems, and is often described as the ‘silent killer’ due to its lack of symptoms.
The research team analyzed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behavior with another across the day is associated with blood pressure.
Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure throughout the day and night.
Optimizing Daily Activities for Blood Pressure Reduction
Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behavior (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling, or stair climbing.
The team modeled statistically what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behavior for another in order to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behavior with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 percent at a population level.
Exercise as a Key Factor in Blood Pressure Management
First author Dr. Jo Blodgett from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health said: “Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.
“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 running for a bus or a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.
“For those who don’t do a lot of exercise, walking did still have some positive benefits for blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect.”
Conclusion and Recommendations
Professor Mark Hamer, joint senior author of the study and ProPASS Deputy Director from UCL, said: “Our findings show how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium are for identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep, and sedentary behavior, that have significant clinical and public health importance.”
For more on this research, see 5 Minutes a Day to Healthier Blood Pressure.
Reference: “Device-Measured 24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Blood Pressure: A 6-Part Compositional Individual Participant Data Analysis in the ProPASS Consortium” by Joanna M. Blodgett, Matthew N. Ahmadi, Andrew J. Atkin, Richard M. Pulsford, Vegar Rangul, Sebastien Chastin, Hsiu-Wen Chan, Kristin Suorsa, Esmée A. Bakker, Nidhi Gupta, Pasan Hettiarachchi, Peter J. Johansson, Lauren B. Sherar, Borja del Pozo Cruz, Nicholas Koemel, Gita D. Mishra, Thijs M.H. Eijsvogels, Sari Stenholm, Alun D. Hughes, Armando Teixeira-Pinto, Ulf Ekelund, I-Min Lee, Andreas Holtermann, Annemarie Koster, Emmanuel Stamatakis and Mark Hamer, 6 November 2024, Circulation.
DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069820
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.