Physical Activity Shows Benefits in Helping Control Blood Pressure

by | Nov 22, 2013 | Blood Pressure, Fitness and Exercise

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Those engaging in “high levels” of physical activity had a 19% reduced risk of having high blood pressure compared to those with “low levels” of physical activity. There was also an 11% reduced risk of high blood pressure for “moderate level” exercisers compared to “low level” exercisers.

High blood pressure has been deemed a worldwide epidemic (1) and is estimated to cost our healthcare system $73 billion in 2009 (2). The National Institutes of Health classify a healthy blood pressure as 120/80 mm Hg or less, a blood pressure between 120/80 and 140/90 as “prehypertension”, and 140/90 mm Hg or greater as high blood pressure (3).

Now a new research review (4) suggests that recreational physical activity can be an effective way to help maintain a healthy blood pressure. In the review, researchers examined data from 13 studies consisting of 15, 607 cases of high blood pressure that developed over an average follow-up of 9.8 years among 136,846 subjects who were initially free of high blood pressure.

The researchers found that those engaging in “high levels” of physical activity had a 19% reduced risk of having high blood pressure compared to those with “low levels” of physical activity (p < 0.05). There was also an 11% reduced risk of high blood pressure for “moderate level” exercisers compared to “low level” exercisers (p < 0.05).

While the researchers defined recreational physical activity as “voluntary and purposeful, such as running, jogging, swimming, cycling, ball games, and some other form of exercise”, they did not give the specific amounts of physical activity that distinguished “high” from “moderate” to “low” levels of physical activity, as each of the 13 studies had different criteria.

The researchers found no reduced risk of high blood pressure with increased occupational physical activity, defined as “activity required for one’s job” (5).  This agrees with previous research suggesting that occupational physical activity increases the risk for long-term sickness absence (6) and that excessive work was associated with poorer health, dissatisfaction with life, poor recuperation from fatigue, and high blood pressure (7).

The researchers admit that the relationship between increased recreational physical activity and blood pressure is “complex” and no definitive mechanism has been found (8) but pointed to physical activity’s ability to maintain healthy blood vessels (9) and contribute to controlling blood sugar (10) as contributing factors. For the researchers, “The results of this meta-analysis suggested that there was an inverse dose–response association between levels of recreational physical activity and risk of hypertension, whereas there was no significant association between occupational physical activity and hypertension.”

Source: Li, Jian, and Johannes Siegrist. “Physical activity and risk of cardiovascular disease—a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.” International journal of environmental research and public health 9.2 (2012): 391-407.

© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

Posted October 14, 2013.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. Casas JP. Homocysteine and stroke: evidence on a causal link from Mendelian randomization. Lancet 2005; 365(9455): 224-232
  2. “May is high blood pressure education month” posted on the CDC website
  3. “What Is High Blood Pressure?” posted on the NIH website
  4. Huai P.  Physical Activity and Risk of Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.  Hypertension. 2013 Sep 30. [Epub ahead of print]
  5. Barengo NC, Hu G, Tuomilehto J. Physical activity and hypertension: evidence of cross-sectional studies, cohort studies and meta-analysis. Curr Hypertens Rev. 2007;3:255–263
  6. Holtermann A, Hansen JV, Burr H, Søgaard K, Sjøgaard G. The health paradox of occupational and leisure-time physical activity. Br J Sports Med. 2012;46:291–295.
  7. Lu JL. Occupational hazards and illnesses of Filipino women workers in export processing zones. Int J Occup Saf Ergon. 2008;14:333–342
  8. Pescatello LS, Franklin BA, Fagard R, Farquhar WB, Kelley GA, Ray CA; American College of Sports Medicine. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exercise and hypertension. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36:533–553.
  9. Cornelissen VA, Fagard RH. Effects of endurance training on blood pressure, blood pressure-regulating mechanisms, and cardiovascular risk factors. Hypertension. 2005;46:667–675.
  10. Henriksen EJ. Invited review: Effects of acute exercise and exercise training on insulin resistance. J Appl Physiol. 2002;93:788–796