Lifestyle changes, including exercise, are being promoted as a first line of defense against high blood pressure (hypertension). Several recent studies provide insight into how much exercise lowers blood pressure as well as what type of exercise lowers blood pressure.

Three meta-analysis studies, one funded by the American Heart Association, another published by in the Annals of Internal Medicine and the most recent in the Journal of Human Hypertension, all concluded that exercise does lower blood pressure a statistically significantly amount. However, none of the studies found it to lower blood pressure more than 4 mmHg.

The first report in 2000 analyzed several hundred studies and found 11 to meet their criteria as high quality. The exercise training programs in these studies ranged from 6 to 30 weeks, with subjects exercising 2 to 5 times a week, at both low and high intensity, for 20 to 60 minutes each time. The overall effect was a drop in blood pressure of 2 to 4 points systolic and 3 to 4 points diastolic. (Kelley)

The study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2002 focused on 54 trials in which only aerobic exercise was used. The aerobic exercise in each study varied and included many types, frequencies and intensities. Overall, an average reduction in systolic blood pressure of 3.84 points and 2.58 diastolic were found. These results applied regardless of the patient’s weight, ethnicity and whether they were hypertensive. (Seamus)

In 2005, a report published in the Journal of Human Hypertension not only studied the effect of exercise on high blood pressure, but also tried to discover if diet and exercise together produced better results. A meta-analysis of 44 trials indicated that dynamic aerobic exercise produces an average systolic decrease of 3.4 point and diastolic of 2.4 points. They also concluded that “exercise appears to be less effective than diet in lowering blood pressure (p<0.02), and adding exercise to diet does not seem to further reduce blood pressure.”(Fagard)

Sources:

Fagard, R.H. “Effects of exercise, diet and their combination on blood pressure”. Journal of Human Hypertension (2005) 19, S20–S24. doi:10.1038/sj.jhh.1001956. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://www.nature.com/jhh/journal/v19/n3s/full/1001956a.html#top.

Kelley, G.A. and Kelley, K.S. “Progressive Resistance Exercise and Resting Blood Pressure”. Hypertension. 2000;35:838. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/35/3/838

Seamus P. Whelton; Ashley Chin, MPH, MA; Xue Xin, MD, MS; and Jiang He, MD, PhD . “Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Blood Pressure”. Annals of Internal Medicine, 136 (2002): 493-503. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/7/493#FN.