Lack of exercise is a major cause of high blood pressure. In rural agrarian societies, one reason hypertension is so rare is due to the great amount of physical work required just to survive and eat.
One session of exercise at just 40 percent of maximal capacity, the equivalent of moderate walking, can lower blood pressure significantly for up to twenty-four hours.
Regular exercise often reduces body-fat weight and improves other metabolic processes such as insulin sensitivity and sympathetic activity which are causally linked to hypertension.
When exercise is combined with diet, weight loss and blood pressure reduction increase significantly.
Weight loss reduces basal norepinephrine levels and lowering of plasma insulin attenuates sympathetic nerves activity and decreases sodium retention in the kidney. These combined adaptations all contribute to lower blood pressure.
Exercise lowers both systolic and diastolic pressures very dramatically. In one study involving a total of 2419 men and women by the University of New Orleans, doctor examined that aerobic exercise was associated with what those researchers called ‘impressive’ reduction of nearly 4 points in systolic blood pressure and 3 points in diastolic on average.
Published by Preventive Medicine volume 37, 2003, doctors at the University of Tennessee simply had the patients walk every day with no other changes in their life styles. For eight weeks they simply walk a lot every day. Their blood pressure fell dramatically.
The effect on blood pressure is proportional to the intensity and duration of exercise; light exercise such as calisthenics lowers pressure but the higher the exercise intensity and the longer the duration of exercise the greater the blood pressure reduction will be.
Exercise lowering Hypertension
