Adding 5 Minutes of Exercise Daily May Help Lower Blood Pressure
Incorporating just five minutes of exercise into your daily routine can have a significant impact on your blood pressure levels. Regular physical activity, even in short bursts, can promote heart health, improve circulation, and reduce stress, all of which contribute to maintaining healthy blood pressure. This small but powerful change could be the key to better cardiovascular health and a more active lifestyle.
How Does Physical Activity Affect Blood Pressure?
A recent study examined how different activity patterns throughout a 24-hour period impact blood pressure, including both systolic and diastolic readings. Researchers categorized physical activity into six types:
- Sleeping
- Sedentary behavior
- Standing
- Slow walking
- Fast walking
- Exercise-like activities (such as cycling and running)
The study involved data from 14,761 participants across six observational cohort studies. Participants wore movement trackers to monitor their activity levels and were included if they wore the tracker for at least 20 hours a day and provided data from both weekdays and weekends.
On average, participants engaged in exercise-like activities for about 16 minutes daily, while spending more than 10 hours per day in sedentary behavior. Nearly a quarter of the participants were on medication for high blood pressure, and the average blood pressure reading was approximately 132/79 mmHg.
The study took into account factors such as alcohol consumption, smoking status, and age, with some cohorts also collecting additional data on mobility and education level.
Findings from the Study
The research revealed that increased exercise-like activity and adequate sleep were linked to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Conversely, higher levels of sedentary behavior were associated with higher blood pressure readings.
Reducing Sedentary Time Can Improve Blood Pressure
When looking at how different activities impacted blood pressure, the researchers found that replacing sedentary behavior with exercise-like activities led to the most significant improvements. For instance, replacing just five minutes of any other activity with exercise-like activities was associated with a reduction of about 0.68 points in systolic blood pressure and 0.54 points in diastolic blood pressure.
In fact, increasing the duration of exercise-like activities showed even greater benefits. For example, replacing 21 minutes of sedentary behavior with exercise-like activity could result in a 2-point reduction in systolic blood pressure. Similarly, replacing 11 minutes of sedentary behavior with exercise-like activity could lower diastolic blood pressure by 1 point.
Interestingly, the study also found that substituting sedentary time with other activities like walking could have a positive impact on diastolic blood pressure, though more time needed to be reallocated. Replacing 95 minutes of sedentary behavior with 95 minutes of slow walking, for example, could result in a 1-point reduction in diastolic blood pressure.
