According to common opinion of doctors, running
and cycling (these are so called aerobic exercises) are beneficial in heart and
circulatory system diseases. Although hypertension can be seen as
cardiovascular dysregulation, which arises from hormonal and nervous systems
disbalance, it truly is crucial in development of other heart and vascular
diseases (such as atherosclerosis, heart failure etc).
There was a giant study in Finland, which
involved more than 20 000 healthy people with 11 years of follow-up. The
main task of this study was to evaluate the emergence of hypertension.
Participants filled out questionnaires, informing researchers about lifestyle,
practiced sports and exercise. Exercise effort was divided with respect to
place (at work, commuting, leisure) and duration. Both of it allowed
researchers to place every subject in group of low, medium and high intensity
exercise. Blood pressure and BMI were measured systematically.
Hypertension occurred in 787 men and 813 women
during the follow-up. This represents 10% of the total number of participants.
We can tell, than there is 1% probability of occurrence of hypertension in the
population. Let’s see what are the factors that have impact on hypertension
emergence in men.
As we look through the statistics, hypertension
– positive subjects were older (45 vs 43 years old), had higher Body Mass
Index, (27 vs 26) and also shorter learning period of 9 years, compare with 10
years of non-hypertension. No statistical differences are shocking.
There is somewhat surprising phenomenon of
lower hypertension occurrence in smokers group. Population was divided into
three subgroups of current-smokers, never-smokers and ever-smokers. The
percentage of smokers into hypertension group was 31, whereas in no-hypertension it was 33%.
This is where things are getting more and more interesting. Hypertension appears
most frequently into ever-smokers group with 37% whereas just 30% in
no-hypertension group. It seems that quitting smoking is associated with
increased risk of hypertension. Never smokers create 37% in non-hypertension
group and only 33% in hypertension. No surprise there.
Relationship to body weight reveals that higher
BMI group is more susceptible to hypertension. 25-29.9 BMI subgroup is more or
less equal in both blood pressure groups, but there is significant increase of
hypertension incidence in obese group with BMI more than 30 (7% difference). As
expected BMI lower than 25 acts as protection against hypertension, so we have almost
8% difference between groups.
Physical activity also affects the occurrence of
hypertension in men. In low activity subgroup there is almost 4% difference
between no- and hypertension groups. We have exactly opposite difference in high
physical activity subgroup.
So if one likes to increase chance to be
healthy it is beneficial to never smoke, have moderate or high physical
activity and preserve low body weight with BMI below 25. This can cut incidence
of hypertension by almost half.
