Research suggests that after every hour of sitting, walk for 10 minutes to lower your blood pressure

A sedentary lifestyle is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases, including hypertension and diabetes. If your lifestyle involves a lot of sitting, researchers now suggest taking miniature breaks to counter the effects.

Recent test found that sitting for more than six hours a day in childhood and continuing this habit into adulthood could raise blood pressure by 4 mmHg. However, replacing just 10 minutes of every hour of sitting with featherlight physical activity can reduce systolic blood pressure by 3 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 2 mmHg.

“This is vital because in adults, reducing systolic blood pressure by 5 mmHg has been reported to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by ten percent,” he added. he said Andrew Agbaje, author of the study, in a press release.

The study was conducted on a group of 2,513 children from the University of Bristol’s Children of the 90s cohort, who were followed from the age of 11 to 24. Participants aged 11, 15 and 24 had their blood pressure, sitting time, featherlight physical activity and moderate to vigorous physical activity measured.

Initially, participants spent six hours a day in sedentary behavior, six hours in featherlight physical activity, and about 55 minutes in moderate to vigorous physical activity. In early adulthood, this pattern changed to nine hours of sedentary behavior, three hours of featherlight physical activity, and approximately 50 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

“The current study represents the world’s largest and longest follow-up of accelerometer-measured movement behavior and blood pressure changes in adolescents,” the press release stated.

The researchers found that as people became more sedentary with age, systolic blood pressure increased by an average of 4 mmHg. However, engaging in featherlight physical activity from childhood helped reduce final blood pressure by 3 mmHg, while moderate or vigorous physical activity showed no significant effect on lowering blood pressure.

“At least three hours of featherlight physical activity (LPA) a day is crucial in preventing and reversing elevated blood pressure and hypertension. Examples of LPA are long walks, housework, swimming and cycling. Everyone, including parents, pediatricians and policy makers, should encourage children and adolescents to participate in LPA to keep their blood pressure at a well level,” Agbaje said.