Q: What’s the best kind of
exercise to help reduce high blood pressure?
A: Aerobic activity will
have the biggest impact on your blood pressure. Depending on your starting
level of fitness, you might begin with walking three days a week for 10 or 15
minutes. Every couple weeks add another five minutes a day until you are
walking or doing other aerobic activity five to seven days a week for 30
minutes or more. It would be terrific to accumulate 60 minutes of aerobic
activity each day, which could come from several blocks of 15 to 20 minutes. Besides
walking, other aerobic activities include biking (inside or out), dancing,
swimming and active yard work. Once your fitness begins to improve, add strength
training to keep from losing muscle, important for overall well-being. You can
use inexpensive hand-held weights, elastic resistance bands, or machines at a Y
or fitness center. For those with high blood pressure, most experts say that
low and moderate activity is more effective (and safer) than vigorous exercise.
Those who take beta-blocker medicines to control their blood pressure can’t
gauge their activity by their heart rate, so using a scale of how hard it feels
like you are working, something that feels “light” to “somewhat hard” is the
recommended range. When strength training, lighter weights with more
repetitions are better than straining to hoist very heavy weights. The
combination of regular moderate activity with healthy eating habits and working
to reach and maintain a healthy weight can lower your blood pressure and reduce
your need for medicine to control it. Experts says that most healthy people
don’t need to check with their doctor before increasing exercise, but for those
with high blood pressure, that is the smart thing to do.
The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is
the cancer charity that fosters research on the relationship of nutrition,
physical activity and weight management to cancer risk, interprets the
scientific literature and educates the public about the results. It has
contributed more than $96 million for innovative research conducted at
universities, hospitals and research centers across the country. AICR has
published two landmark reports that interpret the accumulated research in the
field, and is committed to a process of continuous review. AICR also provides a
wide range of educational programs to help millions of Americans learn to make
dietary changes for lower cancer risk. Its award-winning New American Plate
program is presented in brochures, seminars and on its website, www.aicr.org.
AICR is part of the global network of charities that are dedicated to the
prevention of cancer. The WCRF global network is led and unified by WCRF
International, a membership association which operates as the umbrella
organization for the network .The other charities in the WCRF network are World
Cancer Research Fund in the UK (www.wcrf-uk.org); Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds
in the Netherlands (www.wcrf-nl.org); World Cancer Research Fund Hong Kong
(www.wcrf-hk.org); and Fonds Mondial de Recherche contre le Cancer in France
(www.fmrc.fr).