Working up a sweat could be the most important lifestyle change people with high blood pressure — or hypertension — can make in their daily lives. Yet, although patients who receive exercise counseling seem to listen, few physicians actually take the time to talk about physical activity with their patients, a large nationwide study finds.

Just over one-third of people with a hypertension diagnosis said a clinician told them to increase their physical activity to help lower their blood pressure.

They listened.

Seventy-one percent of the patients with high blood pressure increased physical activity and saw a drop in blood pressure as a result.

 

“The blood pressure reduction was…unexpected, as this was not a trial to determine whether exercise would reduce blood pressure,” said lead study author Josiah Halm, M.D., a clinical assistant professor of medicine and hypertension specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He added it was safe to conclude that exercise led to the blood pressure drop.

Medication alone helps only about a third of all patients with hypertension.

The study appears in the summer issue of the journal Ethnicity & Disease. The data come from the seventh National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

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