To those of you who exercise and/or have lost weight, how effective is this in helping to lower your blood pressure readings? A lot of the info out there on HTN talks about exercise and weight loss as ways to help get bp readings lower. How successful has this been for those of you who have done it?

Beth

Beth,
I discovered that exercise and having vegetables are the whole trick in lowering BP. Exercise of course means being active like walking, and moderate daily activities of life, not as ads say registering in a gym and burdening depressing yourself to death for losing weight which is the cause of depression and more HBP!

--Max.

[This message has been edited by maxjasper (edited 10-08-2003).]

Beth,
I was within my normal weight range, though a little heavier than usual for me when I was diagnosed with HBP. I lost some weight and increased my walking to 35 - 45 minutes a day at a fast pace for 5 months. I still had readings of between 120-140 and 100 - 110 on the bottom number, with medication. It also was labile, or varied quite a bit.

The doctor considered raising my medication once again. I started more strenuous exercise, running and walking for the 35 - 45 minutes. Within 6 weeks of starting this exercise, I went to the doctor yet again and they were shocked to get a reading of 110/80. It has held there pretty much since then, and I don't have the variations. The doctor left my medication as is. Though all the studies I saw said that moderate exercise is as good as strenuous, I am proof that it is not. In fact, I saw one footnote on one of those studies that said that they really didn't have enough people doing a strenuous exercise to really see if it made a difference. Naturally, with HBP, talk to your doctor about any exercise program you decide to try.

Here's an interesting finding by a recent study on exercise and HBP:

Quote:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In patients with high blood pressure who were previously sedentary, modest increases in physical activity result in meaningful decreases in blood pressure, according to a report in the August issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

Regular aerobic exercise is recommended for patients with high blood pressure, Dr. Kazuko Ishikawa-Takata, of the National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues note. "However, it is not clear how much exercise is needed to reduce blood pressure."

In an 8-week exercise intervention study, the researchers examined the response to exercise training in 207 untreated patients with high blood pressure. The subjects were divided into five groups depending on duration per week of exercise: no regular exercise; 30 to 60 min/week; 61 to 90 min/week; 91 to 120 min/week; and more than 120 min/week.

There were no differences among the groups in terms of age, gender, height, weight, calorie intake, and blood pressure level at the start of the trial.

No changes in blood pressure were observed in the sedentary group. On the other hand, all of the subjects in the exercise groups experienced significant reductions in both systolic blood pressure (the top number in a pressure reading) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number in a pressure reading.)

"The magnitude of reductions in systolic blood pressure was greater in the 61 to 90 min/week group compared with the 30 to 60 min/week group," the investigators report. "There were no greater reductions in systolic blood pressure with further increases in exercise volume."

The average exercise duration in the 61 to 90 min/week group was 75 min/week. The reduction in systolic pressure was about 12 mm Hg, and the drop in diastolic about 8 mm Hg.

There were no significant differences in the magnitude of reductions in diastolic blood pressure between the exercising groups.

No obvious associations were found between exercise frequency per week and the magnitude of reductions in blood pressure with exercise training, Dr. Ishikawa-Takata and colleagues found.

They note that guidelines recommend 30 to 60 minutes of exercise on most days, although a recent study found that just one hour of exercise per week halved the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The current findings are consistent with this study and raise the possibility that much smaller amounts of exercise than the amounts recommended by recent guidelines may reduce high blood pressure, the investigators conclude.

"Even 30 to 60 minutes of exercise per week were sufficient" for this purpose, they point out, while stressing that more exercise is warranted "depending on the cardiovascular risk factor of interest."

SOURCE: American Journal of Hypertension, August 2003.


This is encouraging in that, evidently, none of the participants actually dieted or lost weight during the trial period. Their blood pressure readings went down based on exercise alone.

Even though this study found that 'moderate' exercise was sufficient to obtain a substantial reduction in BP, this probably does vary with each individual (as the prior poster discovered).


[This message has been edited by shadepra (edited 10-08-2003).]

Shadepra-
THANKS for posting that abstract....it's very encouraging news .

zuzu xxx

Originally posted by Beth36:
To those of you who exercise and/or have lost weight, how effective is this in helping to lower your blood pressure readings? A lot of the info out there on HTN talks about exercise and weight loss as ways to help get bp readings lower. How successful has this been for those of you who have done it?

Beth

Beth:

In 1997 I was 31 years old, weighed 215 lbs and was diagnosed with hypertension (170/112).

I was put on HCTZ first, then I think Lexxel and Ziac. I kept up this and added other meds as my weight went up to 227 lbs. I was not doing exercise. Eventually I developed diabetes, had CHD, and suffered a MI at age 35 in March 2002.

Since then, I started off walking, eating a low fat diet, and dropping my weight. My lipid profile went from horrible to low risk category, the diabetes reversed and I came off all 7 medications for these kind of maladies, including three BP meds (ACE inhibitor,beta blocker and diuretic). Now, I am at 155 lbs, run 3 miles just about every day, and take no medications except zyrtec for allergies. My bp is consistently around 110/70.

I am not saying everyone can have this success, but if you are asking because you are thinking that it might help in your case, I wish you success also.

Ulrich

Ulrich,
Thanks for sharing your story. How great to know that you're doing so well-it is VERY reassuring to hear success stories like yours.

I'm 36, 5'4" and 180 lbs, and other than needing to lose about 40-50 lbs, my health is good. I've started to lose weight and exercise, and my goal is to maintain my blood pressure with healthy weight and exercise and get off meds someday, just like you.

Thanks to all who've responded to this post so far. It's good to know that diet and exercise do help!

Beth,

I think weight control is the singularly most important factor in BP control.
At 220# (and 6'2" muscular) I need BP meds to get good control of my hypertension. At >230# no amount of meds works for decent control, BUT at <200#, no meds are necessary and my BP is consistently good. I've seen this cycle several times.

<So then I get lazy and up goes the weight and out come the pills>

You're probably right about weight loss being the most important factor. I'm having a really hard time taking off any weight, so was hoping that exercise alone might make a difference. I'll stick with my new regimen of exercise and deep breathing, then will see after 8 weeks or so (keeping fingers crossed).

[This message has been edited by shadepra (edited 10-10-2003).]