High blood pressure: sports helps as well as medications

Sport lowers blood pressure – and just as effective as drugs. This is the conclusion of researchers who have for the first time, compared the effect of different treatment options with each other. The biggest challenge was to motivate patients, a regular exercise.

Endurance sports such as Running, Swimming or Cycling, as well as dynamic strength training have a positive effect on blood pressure. A new analysis shows that these sports help in the treatment of hypertension even as good as drugs, report researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the journal "British Journal of Sports Medicine".

For the study, they examined 194 clinical studies, in which the blood pressure with medication was reduced, and compared these with data from 197 research work, in which the effect of different sports was measured on the blood pressure. A total of around 40,000 people took part in the studies, but only a part with high blood pressure. The scientists-in wardrobes that were on averaged data, and there would have been no direct comparison between antihypertensive drugs and a sports program. In addition, there is less data for people with high blood pressure and certain training had been types available.

For many patients, it could be difficult, however, to replace their daily blood pressure pills a regular fitness training. “We do not believe that patients should stop on the Basis of our study to take your blood-pressure-lowering drugs,” says study author Dr. Huseyin Naci. The researchers hope, however, that results in a patient-motivate to move more frequently.

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