Exercise to Treat Hypertension:
Late Breaking News on Exercise Prescriptions That FITT
Hypertension is widespread, and is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and also is an independent predictor of mortality. Prevalence and incidence of hypertension has increased markedly over the past 20 years and almost half of individuals are unaware that they have hypertension. There are many studies that show that exercise has anti-hypertensive effects, and the American College of Sports Medicine(ACSM) recommends exercise as first line treatment to prevent, treat and control hypertension.
ACSM recommendations for exercise include:
- – Exercise on most days of the week
- Low, moderate or vigorous with an emphasis of moderate
- >= 20 to 30min per day to total of >= 90-150 + min per week of continuous or accumulated exercise
- With an emphasis on aerobic or resistance exercise alone, or combined in addition to neuromotor and flexibility depending on personal preference.
- Neuromotor types of exercise include yoga, pilates, Tai Chi- although caution was urged in interpreting antihypertensive effects of neuromotor exercise due to the low methodological quality of this literature.
However there are still knowledge gaps that remain in the exercise and hypertension literature. Minimal or optimal exercise dose that is required to produce the most clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular risk remains to be seen, more randomised-conrolled trials are required.
In Summary/TLDR:
Exercise helps with hypertension which in turn helps to reduce cardiovascular risk. There is some evidence that on top of aerobic/ resistance exercise alone, alternative forms of exercise like yoga/pilates/ tai chi may help with reduction of hypertension as well. However more studies are required as to what is the minimum optimum dose to achieve maximal benefits on lowering blood pressure.
References:
Alves, A. , Wu, Y. , Lopes, S. , Ribeiro, F. & Pescatello, L. (2022). Exercise to Treat Hypertension: Late Breaking News on Exercise Prescriptions That FITT. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 21 (8), 280-288. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000983.
