Expert: Todd Bublitz, RCEP - 1/13/2004

Question
I am a female, 51 years old, with a strong history of heart disease in my family.  Despite taking daily medication for hypertension, my blood pressure has recently risen.  My doctor strongly recommends that I engage in a regular exercise program.  What should activities should I be doing to help regulate my blood pressure?  I have limited time for exercise in my day, and I would like to get the most effecient effect from my time spent exercising.

Answer
Barbara,

Cardiovascular exercise, also known as 'aerobic exercise', is best for cardiovascular fitness.  Good examples are walking, jogging, bicycling, swimming, stair stepping, etc.  Anything that feels 'moderate' to 'somewhat' challenging.  The more minutes you can do this type of exercise the better.  It is best to do at least 20-30 minutes each time, but this can also be done in 10-15 minute bouts two or three times a day.

Try to do your exercise at a comfortable but challenging level.  It recommended that you start as slow as needed so you can complete at least 20 minutes without needing to stop.  Increase the time (if and when time allows) to 30-60 minutes.  More minutes of exercise are typically better than less time and more intensity.  Exercising for 60 minutes 6 days a week will give you more than 4 times the benefit of exercising 30 minutes 3 days a week.  Exercising as little as 1 hour a week will give you good benefit.

We need to be realistic as to what exercise can accomplish and what our goals are.  Regular exercise (30 minutes 4-6 days a week) reduces systolic blood pressure an average of 4-9 points.  Losing weight and getting to a healthy weight can reduce your systolic blood pressure an average of 5-20 points.  Most people with high blood pressure require TWO or more blood pressure medications.  The recommended goal (the healthiest blood pressure) is less than 120/80 mm Hg.  Going from a blood pressure of 120/80 to 135/90 doubles your risk of cardiovascular disease.  This information is available in the most recent "Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure".
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/hypertension/

Remember, health is like a retirement account.  You get out of it what you put in.  With a family history of heart disease, you need to work harder than the average person to reduce your risk.

I hope this helps and best of luck.

Todd