A new study says as little as five minutes of exercise per day could be enough to improve your blood pressure.
A healthy blood pressure is considered 120/80 mm Hg. The first, top, number is a measure of arterial pressure driven by your heart beat. The second, lower, number, measures the same pressure when your heart relaxes. On average, with just an additional five minutes of exercise daily, participants in the study cut their top number by 0.68 mm Hg and their bottom number by 0.54 mm Hg.
While the improvement is slight, Jo Blodgett, a senior research fellow at the University of College London and first author of the study, says that “any difference helps.”
“A lot of people are not doing enough exercise. Instead of thinking, ‘I need to go from zero to 60 minutes,’ you can start small and then when you get comfortable with that, you can increase the intensity over time.”
According to a 2021 article from Texas Health, 32% of Lone Star State residents had high blood pressure, roughly in line with the national average. Men in Texas had slightly higher rates at 34.3% compared to women at 29.3%.
Globally, roughly 1.3 billion people possess elevated blood pressure, according to the World Health Organization.
Because high pressure does not necessarily manifest in symptoms, it is nicknamed the “silent killer.” Left untreated, it can lead to stroke, heart attack, kidney damage, and heart failure.
And it is not just adults plagued with the condition. Roughly one in seven U.S. children and teenagers have high blood pressure or are trending towards the condition. In part, researchers blame obesity.
While exercise has long been shown to help improve blood pressure, the latest findings suggest that even small periods of movement can be meaningful.
“We looked at a 24-hour day and asked, ‘If you change just five minutes between any two behaviors, what happens to that person’s blood pressure?… We found that replacing any kind of behavior with five minutes of exercise makes a difference,” Blodgett said.
The authors conducted the study by analyzing blood pressure and activity data sourced from over 14,000 people in Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and the United Kingdom. While five minutes of physical activity was found to move the needle, the researchers said at least 20 to 27 minutes of exercise daily is needed to attain clinically significant reductions.