Exercise to Reduce and Control Blood Pressure

Hypertension, perhaps more commonly known as high blood pressure, is an ever present medical state, where the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. The presence of high blood pressure tends to increase with age but although medication is available in the vast majority of cases, there is a way, perhaps the most natural way of all, that one can use to help reduce and control chronic hypertension.  A dirty word to some but it should be no surprise to hear that it is Exercise and it can be of major benefit in reducing and avoiding hypertension.  What is the relationship between hypertension and exercise?

 How Does Exercise Make My Blood Pressure Come Down?

Broadly speaking, exercise will help to make your heart strong and your strengthened heart will find it easier in its task to pump blood around your body.  Less effort used for pumping the blood means the loads – the pressure in other words – on the arteries is reduced thereby lowering the blood pressure. Exercise if planned properly is often found to be more effective than medication in lowering blood pressure and almost as excitingly, a regular regime can keep increased blood pressure at bay in the future.  Even if exercise cannot produce the full required reduction in blood pressure, it will frequently allow a reduction in the dose of regular medication, which of course is always to be preferred.

Exercise – Your Weight – Your Blood Pressure

A healthy weight and body mass index can rarely be achieved without exercise but to realize the benefits, you need to exercise on a regular basis. and at the risk of stating the obvious, only regular ongoing exercise will enable you to continue enjoying these benefits in the future. 

What Type of Exercises?

Aerobic exercises, commonly called “Aerobics”, are said to be the most helpful exercises when it comes to exercising your heart. as they provide most exercise for your heart compared to other options and usually with least risk. Nevertheless, other options are available such as weight lifting. Although there is an initial increase in blood pressure during a weight lifting session, the overall effect is to reduce and control blood pressure.  Amongst other good cardiac control exercises, you could also engage in.cycling, climbing stairs, walking, swimming and jogging. The good news is that these are all exercises where you can control the pace and are, therefore, relatively undemanding  You can even listen to your iPod or watch television whilst engaging in some of them!

 Precautions

One crucial thing you must do prior to commencing an exercise program is getting the go-ahead from your physician. If you are on medication of any sort, it would be wise to check with your doctor if exercise may affect its efficacy or perhaps produce undesirable side-effects. 

Always perform stretches prior to commencing your exercise session as this will help avoid pulling muscles or straining yourself and make sure you start your exercise slowly with a gentle warm up for a few minutes.  If you feel faint, experience shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, chest pains or dizziness during your exercises, then stop immediately.  If this were to happen, it would be sensible to return to your physician to discuss what took place

Drink Plenty Of Water

Don’t forget to keep yourself hydrated by drinking plenty of water as you will lose a lot of water through perspiration, which must be replaced.  This is vital..

Monitoring Your Blood Pressure

It is advisable to check your blood pressure prior to starting your exercise session and write down the reading. We recommend that you take a further BP reading at the end of your session when you will normally find your pressure is lower than at the start. We have dealt with acceptable blood pressure levels in other articles.

What Type Of Blood Pressure Monitor?

Home blood pressure monitors are readily available these days and for affordable prices, the main price variations being attributable to additional features rather than inferior or superior accuracy.  The ideal is a reasonably priced automatic digital blood pressure monitor but we know one retailer with whom we deal who will actually give you a free entry-level monitor if you buy one of their other products!

 White Coat Syndrome

A point-of-interest as an aside for a moment, often when one takes blood pressure at home, well away from the doctor’s surgery, your BP reading will be lower than the doctor’s. This is not an indication that you messed up!  This may be due to what is called “white coat hypertension”, often called white coat syndrome, which is an occurrence in which individuals display elevated blood pressure in a clinical setting but not in other situations. It seems probable that this is due to the anxiety some people feel when undergoing a medical clinic visit.

Conclusion

If you suffer from high blood pressure, exercise will provide the easiest and cheapest way of bringing down and controlling it..

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