Can Exercises Lower High Blood Pressure, Hear From The Expert

Blood pressure is the measurement of the pressure or force of blood pushing against our blood vessels. When a person experience hypertension it is the high blood pressure pushing in the blood vessels. This means the pressure against the blood vessel walls in the body is consistently or periodically too high. High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer” in medical terms since damage is still happening inside the body even when the person isn't aware of the same.

This is alarming and in order to gather yours and everyone’s attention to this silent killer, onlymyhealth’s focus of the month is hypertension wherein we will be addressing hypertension-related queries. Through this article, we will tell you the outcomes and risk factors of high blood pressure and hypertension. We may also cover the risk factors involved if the illness is not treated in time.

Outcomes Of High Blood Pressure

Untreated hypertension or high blood pressure may lead to serious health hazards if not treated with due care. The outcomes includes the risk of:

• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Kidney failure
• Eye damage
• Vascular dementia
• Complications during pregnancy

Exercises To Avoid High Blood Pressure

In an exclusive interaction with OnlymyHealth, Dr. Vivudh Pratap Singh, Consultant, Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla road, New Delhi explains that we must understand the role of exercise to lower blood pressure and its importance in our daily routine. Exercises and/or any kind of physical exertion helps as a stress buster. It also caters to manage weight loss, and impacts lower blood pressure severely. Exercise is of two types:- Aerobic exercise & Isometric Exercise. Aerobic exercise includes Swimming, cycling, walking, etc. Isometric exercise can help build muscle endurance.  

The muscle power needed by a person to climb a road on an inclined or steep hill or a mountain helps in achieving a greater level of fitness. Physical activity such as walking and hiking can lower blood pressure to up to as more as 10 points.

Weight training is another efficient way of exercising that helps in lowering the blood pressure. Strength training raises blood pressure levels temperilily which helps in reducing the blood pressure thereby improving the overall fitness of a person.

Swimming is another grrat form of exercise that can be beneficial in controlling blood pressure in adults who are 60 years of age and/or older.

Aerobic exercises also helps in lowering blood pressure. Aerobic exercise provides cardiovascular conditioning. The term aerobic literally refer to something with oxygen. This elucidates  that breathing controls the amount of oxygen that can make it to the muscles to help them in burning fuel and move.

Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise

• Improves cardiovascular conditioning
• Decreases risk of heart disease
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases HDL or "good" cholesterol
• Helps to better control blood sugar
• Aids in weight management and/or weight loss
• Improves lung function
• Decreases resting heart rate

As per American association guidelines, we must do such exercise at least 5 days a week for 30 minutes to lower our blood pressure. With such exercises like walking, swimming, our body releases hormones which reduces stress, and helps in losing weight.

How To Reduce High Blood Pressure?

• Eat a balanced diet
• Keep a healthy weight
• Cut down on sodium
• Stay physically active
• Cut down on alcohol and smoking

Hypertension can be controlled albeit, you need to pay attention to your symptoms, causes and treatment. Therefore, follow these easy to do tips and tricks to steer clear from hypertension or high blood pressure health issues. However, if you feel uneasy or your symptoms are severe, it is suggested that you do not leave it untreated and consult a doctor on immediate basis. 

(Image Credits: Freepik)