Exercise Is More Effective Than Walking At Lowering Blood Pressure: Study

Vigorous exercises that increase your heart rate — like cycling, climbing stairs, or running — could be more effective at reducing blood pressure than low-intensity forms of physical movement like walking, according to a recent Circulation study. In fact, increasing your duration of exercise by merely five minutes each day can further help in lowering your blood pressure levels.

Lead author of the study, Jo Blodgett from UCL Surgery & Interventional Science and the Institute of Sport, Exercise & Health, said in a press release: “The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure.”

“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,” Blodgett added.

The researchers studied the health data of 14,761 volunteers residing in five countries who wore activity-tracking devices while exercising and walking. The researchers then divided their daily activities into six categories: sitting, sleeping, slow walking, fast walking, standing, and vigorous exercises.

They found that along with engaging in vigorous exercises, improving your sleep and walking and standing time can also meaningfully contribute to lowering your blood pressure levels. “Beyond the benefits attributed to exercise, substantial replacement of sedentary time with standing or slow walking were required to observe any clinically meaningful change in DBP (78 min/d and 95 min/d, respectively,” the authors noted. “The benefits of longer sleep duration for lower BP may be related to restorative processes that occur while sleeping. During sleep, there is reduced sympathetic activity. For example, nocturnal dipping is a common physiological occurrence, with a habitual reduction of 10% to 20% in BP compared with wakefulness. Over time, chronic sleep deprivation could lead to systemic arterial hypertension through increased cardiovascular strain, vasoconstriction, and sympathetic nervous system activity.”

“The exercise-like activities modeled in our study encompassed activities such as running, cycling, or inclined walking, and could include both structured, intentional exercise and incidental daily activities such as running for a bus or climbing stairs,” the researchers added. “Despite the known benefits of exercise, participation rates in structured exercise sessions remain low because of poor feasibility and desire for many middle-aged adults. Implementing daily changes of an additional five minutes of exercise-like activities provides realistic behavioral changes that could be readily integrated into daily habits and activities.”

Around 26% of the global population or 972 million people suffer from high blood pressure. By 2025, the prevalence rate of high blood pressure might increase to 29% as more people living in developing countries develop this condition. If left undiagnosed and untreated, high blood pressure can significantly increase the risk of stroke and heart disease.