How to control blood pressure through exercise for high blood pressure

Among all chronic diseases, the incidence of hypertension is almost the highest, and poorly controlled blood pressure can lead to serious complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and even blindness. Although the incidence of hypertension is relatively high, the effective control rate is less than 30%. The reason for this situation is that friends treat hypertension mostly by simply relying on medications, while not doing their best in life interventions. Today, let's talk about one aspect of life interventions, how can hypertensive patients exercise reasonably?

What are the benefits of exercise for hypertension?

When it comes to this, some of you may wonder why exercise is advocated for people with hypertension when it is clear that their blood pressure is elevated when they exercise. This is because the effect of exercise on hypertension is not reflected in the exercise at the time but in the long-term benefits.

Statistics show that friends whose blood pressure is at a critical high can effectively lower their systolic blood pressure by 4.3 and diastolic blood pressure by 1.7 through exercise. for those with hypertension, the effect is even more pronounced, lowering systolic blood pressure by 8.3 and diastolic blood pressure by 5.2. even refractory hypertension, which requires three anti-hypertensive drugs, can be effectively lowered through exercise. The reason why exercise has such a good effect on lowering blood pressure is due to the following effects.

The process of exercise eliminates excess water and sodium from the body and reduces the volume of fluid in the blood vessels, thus, effectively lowering blood pressure. Excessive salt intake is a major cause of hypertension, and eliminating excess sodium is also very beneficial to blood pressure control.

Blood pressure can be lowered through an effective exercise that enhances cardiopulmonary function, slows the process of atherosclerosis, improves arterial wall compliance, and reduces vascular fragility.

The excitability of both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves can be enhanced through exercise. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves are excited at the same time during exercise, but the intensity of the sympathetic excitation is a bit greater, so we will feel a faster heartbeat and higher blood pressure. However, after exercise, sympathetic excitability decreases, and the parasympathetic nerves come into play. The role of the parasympathetic nerve is mainly to dilate blood vessels and lower the heart rate, which can effectively lower blood pressure.

Exercise can promote the endothelial secretion of NO, and NO affects diastolic blood vessels, lowering blood pressure.

Long-term adherence to exercise can also reduce body weight, excessive weight is an independent risk factor for increased blood pressure, there are many friends simply by reducing weight, you can make blood pressure back to normal.

Long-term exercise can make the body secrete a lot of endorphins, endorphins have the effect of relieving mental tension, anxiety, depression, and other bad emotions, which is also very beneficial to the control of blood pressure.

From the above discussion we can see that exercise is very beneficial to the control of hypertension, however, the anti-hypertensive effect described earlier is average, and the effect of exercise on blood pressure varies from person to person, and not everyone can achieve good results through exercise.

How should people with hypertension exercise?

How should friends with high blood pressure exercise, this is a benevolent, wisdom, Dr. Zhang today to share with you is a relatively safe, but also a relatively conservative way of exercise.

Exercise intensity: it is recommended to take moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, the so-called moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, there is a formula: (220 - age - resting heart rate) * (40 ~ 60%) + resting heart rate. Exercise with a heart rate controlled within this range is called moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, and this intensity is safer with a blood pressure of 160 /100 or less. If you find it troublesome to calculate your heart rate, you can try to talk to the people around you during exercise. If you do not have bad feelings during the process and can communicate normally, then you are exercising at a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Common aerobic exercise methods are brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, etc.

Exercise length: the length of aerobic exercise is recommended to control 150-210 minutes/week, the length is too short to achieve the exercise effect, but too long for blood pressure control is not good, there are studies show that: more than 210 minutes per week, blood pressure control is not as good as 150-210 minutes.

Exercise frequency: At the beginning of the exercise, it is recommended to exercise 7 times a week, this is because in the exercise just started, the effect of lowering blood pressure can be maintained for 24 hours, if there is an interval, it is likely to cause blood pressure to rise. Generally, after three months of exercise, you can change to exercise 3-5 times a week. This is because, after three months, the effect of exercise on blood pressure will change to a long-lasting process.

The characteristics of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise are: it is suitable for a wide range of people, does not require high requirements for sports equipment, does not require high requirements for the venue, and has a low chance of sports injury. It is suitable for almost all hypertensive patients.

For young and middle-aged hypertensive friends, you can also increase isometric muscle training, such as horse stance, squatting against the wall and flat support, etc., the effect of lowering blood pressure is also good, you can also do high-intensity interval training and general strength training, 2 to 3 times a week can be, it is not recommended to carry out the above training for two consecutive days, and need to be under the guidance of a professional physician to carry out, once the occurrence of sports injuries, it is not worth the loss.

The above training is more professional, if friends are interested, you can interact with Dr. Zhang in the message area, Dr. Zhang will improve the relevant works if necessary. For friends whose blood pressure exceeds 160/100, you must exercise under the guidance of a professional physician to prevent excessive fluctuations in blood pressure, causing cardiovascular accidents.

Summing up

Hypertension in the incidence of all chronic diseases is very high, but the effective control rate is less than 30%, this is because people anti-hypertensive drugs are used to lower blood pressure simply rely on anti-hypertensive drugs, the intervention of life and not place. Reasonable exercise is a very useful way to lower blood pressure. It is recommended that friends with hypertension take moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, 5-7 days a week, 30 minutes or more each time, not more than 210 minutes a week. After more than three months of exercise, the frequency of exercise can be reduced to 3-5 times a week, if young and middle-aged hypertension can also take isometric muscle training, high-intensity interval training, and general strength training, and blood pressure control is also very beneficial.