Five minutes of extra exercise a day could lower blood pressure

每天多运动5分钟可以降低血压 

New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity -- such as uphill walking or stair-climbing -- into your day may help to lower blood pressure.

Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling, was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure.

Joint senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the ProPASS Consortium from the Charles Perkins Centre said: "High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication."

"The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasises how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management."

Hypertension, or a consistent elevated blood pressure level, is one of the biggest causes of premature death globally. Affecting 1.28 billion adults around the world, it can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and many other health problems, and is often described as the 'silent killer' due to its lack of symptoms.

The research team analysed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behaviour with another across the day is associated with blood pressure.

Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure throughout the day and night.

Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behaviour (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling or stair climbing.

The team modelled statistically what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behaviour for another in order to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 percent at a population level.

First author Dr Jo Blodgett said: "Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.

"The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn't take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure. What's unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running for a bus or a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.

"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."

1. sedentary [ˈsɛdənˌtɛri] adj. 久坐的

2. clinically [ˈklɪnɪkli] adv. 临床地

3. cardiovascular [ˌkɑːrdioʊˈvæskjələr] adj. 心血管的

4. mortality [mɔːrˈtælɪti] n. 死亡率

5. accessible [ækˈsɛsəbl] adj. 可接近的

6. medication [ˌmɛdɪˈkeɪʃən] n. 药物

7. measurably [ˈmɛʒərəbli] adv. 可测量地

8. intensity [ɪnˈtɛnsɪti] n. 强度

9. hypertension [ˌhaɪpərˈtɛnʃən] n. 高血压

10. consistent [kənˈsɪstənt] adj. 一致的

11. elevate [ˈɛləˌveɪt] v. 提升

12. premature [ˌpriːməˈtʃʊr] adj. 过早的

13. stroke [stroʊk] n. 中风

14. accelerometer [ækˌsɛləˈrɑːmɪtər] n. 加速计

15. statistically [stəˈtɪstɪkli] adv. 统计上

16. scenario [səˈnɛrioʊ] n. 情景

17. strenuous [ˈstrɛnjuəs] adj. 剧烈的

18. variable [ˈvɛriəbl] n. 变量