LONDON, Dec 20 — In what is thought to be the first study of its kind, researchers have found that exercise may be as effective as medication at lowering high blood pressure, although they caution that more research is needed before patients stop any drug treatment.

Carried out by UK, German and US researchers, the new study looked at data from 194 clinical trials which had investigated the impact of drugs on lowering systolic blood pressure and 197 trials which investigated the effect of structured exercise, and which together included a total of 39,742 participants.

Structured exercise was categorised as either endurance exercise (including walking, jogging, running, cycling and swimming), high intensity interval training, dynamic resistance, (including strength training with weights or isometric resistance, such as holding a plank) or a combination of endurance and resistance.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that blood pressure was lower in participants treated with drugs than in those following structured exercise programs.

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However, when the researchers analysed only those participants with high blood pressure, excluding the trials of young healthy participants with normal blood pressure, they found that exercise appeared to be just as effective as most prescription drugs.

The researchers also added that they found, “compelling evidence that combining endurance and dynamic resistance training was effective in reducing [systolic blood pressure].”

However, they added that although the findings are promising, it is still too early to replace medication with exercise. In addition, there were fewer studies that looked at the effects of structured exercise, and with fewer participants than those which looked at drugs. 

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However, boosting activity levels in addition to drug treatment could be a good idea they add.

“We don’t think, on the basis of our study, that patients should stop taking their antihypertensive medications,” said lead author Dr Huseyin Naci. “But we hope that our findings will inform evidence-based discussions between clinicians and their patients.”

Dr Naci also added that it is also not as simple as doctors simply prescribing exercise to patients.

“It’s one thing to recommend that physicians start prescribing exercise to their patients, but we also need to be cognisant of the resource implications and ensure that the patients that have been referred to exercise interventions can adhere to them and so really derive benefit,” he says.

New guidelines have recently lowered the threshold for high systolic blood pressure from 140/90 mm Hg for people younger than age 65 to 130/80 mm Hg, meaning that many who didn’t have high blood pressure before now do. — AFP-Relaxnews