Just 5 minutes of exercise can help lower blood pressure, a study suggests

Just five minutes of vigorous exercise a day can help lower blood pressure, a new study suggests.

Analysis of data from nearly 15,000 people revealed that running, cycling, climbing stairs or walking briskly for just a few minutes can have a positive effect on blood pressure. Increasing activity to 20 minutes can reduce the risk of heart disease to a large extent, according to a report published on Wednesday in Circulation.

“Exercise is the most important thing related to blood pressure,” Mark Hamer, professor of sports and exercise medicine at the University of London, said in a Zoom interview.

People with high blood pressure have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death in the US By 2022, high blood pressure was the leading or contributing cause of death 685,875, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About half of all Americans have high blood pressure, defined as a systolic blood pressure (the top number) greater than 130 or a diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) greater than 80.

Adults should get 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a week, most guidelines recommend.

To look at how much exercise might have on blood pressure, Hamer and his colleagues combined data from six previous studies that required participants to wear thigh braces for hours on end. 24 a day.

The 14,761 participants had an average age of 54 and were almost equally divided between men and women (53% women).

On average, participants spent seven hours a day in sleep, 10 hours in sedentary behavior, three hours in standing, one hour in slow walking, and one hour in brisk walking. and 16 minutes of vigorous exercise.

Researchers found that changing sedentary behavior with five minutes of exercise can reduce systolic blood pressure by 0.68 points and diastolic blood pressure by 0.54 points. The longer the exercise duration was 15 minutes, the greater the reduction.

An estimated two-point improvement in systolic blood pressure was observed when 20 minutes of vigorous exercise was replaced by, for example, 21 minutes of sedentary time or 26 minutes of slow walking. Previous studies have found that a two-point reduction in systolic blood pressure can result in a 7% to 10% reduction in heart disease and stroke, the researchers note.

The new study “adds more evidence to support the idea that even moderate exercise can have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Arun Manmadhan, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New. York City.

The idea of ​​vigorous exercise can be daunting for people who aren’t in shape, Manmadhan said. “This research tells us that starting with five to 10 minutes a day can help,” he added. The improvement in blood pressure from just five minutes is not that meaningful – it is less than one point. But you can go up from there until there is a medical improvement in your heart risk. ”

There are many barriers to getting started, said Dr. Matthew Tomey, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Foster Heart Hospital in New York City, who was not involved in the research. He added: “Some people feel like they are too busy. “Papers like this show that it doesn’t need to take a lot of time. Depending on what you are doing you may need little or no equipment. ”

The main takeaway from this study is that every part of exercise is important, said Dr. Sean P. Heffron, assistant professor of medicine and director of cardiovascular health and nutrition at New York University Langone Medical Health. Heffron was not part of the new study.

“I’m trying to encourage people to do things they love, like hiking,” Heffron said, adding that the new research could help people who aren’t in the workforce.

Having a step tracker, like the ones often included in smart phones, can help people keep track of how much they exercise, said Dr. Evan Brittain professor of medicine in the department of cardiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. .

“We thought if you weren’t walking 20 or 30 minutes at a time, it wasn’t enough,” said Brittain, who was not part of the research. “There’s a lot of data now that shows that short events work.”