Incorporating an additional five minutes of intense exercise into your daily routines may help lower your blood pressure, new research suggests.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Circulation, compared trends in the physical activity of 15,000 participants. It used their information to create a theoretical mathematical model of how the blood pressure might change when swapping one type of behavior — such as sleeping or sitting — with a vigorous workout like running or cycling.
Intense physical effort was associated with a slight drop in blood pressure regardless of how active the individual was to begin with, according to the study.
“When exercise-like activities replace any other activity, we see even from the first five minutes of this replacement measurable effects on both diastolic and systolic blood pressure,” explained study co-author Emmanuel Stamatakis, a Ph.D. professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney.
The predicted effect on blood pressure was even greater when participants replaced 30 minutes of sleep with strenuous exercise — potentially enough to have a beneficial impact on their risk of heart disease or stroke. On the other hand, more time spent sitting or sleeping might elevate higher blood pressure, the study predicted.
Almost half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, defined as higher than 130/80, according to American Heart Association guidelines.