United States: Just five minutes extra to your busy schedule can greatly enhance your health! New research reveals that a small boost in physical activity is enough to have an impact on your blood pressure.
The lead researcher, Dr. Jo Blodgett, notes that doing more, such as walking at a quicker pace, cycling or gardening for about five to ten minutes more each day can help in improving your blood pressure. In this work, the two forms of data collected from close to 15,000 participants included data from activity monitors to observe exercise and blood pressure.
An article in the study available in the Circulation Journal expounds on the methods of making small changes in one’s lifestyle significantly reduce the risks of hypertension. So the next time you find yourself with five extra minutes on your hands consider getting your body moving—it could always help you live longer!
As reported by HealthDay, the day’s activities were broken down into six categories: The study identifies the outcomes of sleep, inactivity, slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more physical activity, among others. With the data, researchers were able to predict the consequences of trading sedentary time for the other behaviors.
Even 5 additional minutes a day of exercise translated to lower blood pressure, while 10 to 20 minutes more was equivalent to a clinically significant change in blood pressure, which is 2mmHg decreasing of systolic blood pressure or 1mmHg of diastolic blood pressure, according to Blodgett.
Essentially, clinically significant differences in blood pressures potentially implied less risk of heart disease and stroke, added Dr Susan Cheng, professor and vice chair of research in the department of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles. That is why she was not involved in the research.
“Some of the data are very specific in pointing out that even if one spends most of their day sitting, small changes can go a long way,” she notes in an email.
In line with the said perspective, numerous previous research works conducted over the past decades have established that greater physical activity results to better blood pressure.
The latest study can be distinguished, for instance, by an actual examination of people’s lives: instead of submitting them to regular workout regimes, The study was carried out by Dr. Mark Hamer, Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health at University College London.
“It is always challenging with such studies as they manage to reduce (blood pressure) but as soon as the people complete the programme, they return to their old ways.” He noted in an email.
Cheng further noted that according to information obtained in this study, people are very much inactive.