Research finds as little as five minutes of daily physical activity could help lower blood pressure

Adding just five minutes of physical activity to your day could help lower blood pressure, new research has found.

The study, by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, monitored nearly 15,000 volunteers across five countries as they did daily activities including sleep, sedentary behaviour like sitting, slow walking, fast walking, standing, and vigorous exercise like running or stair climbing.

Researchers then modelled the health data to see what would happen if one behaviour was interchanged with another to estimate the effect on blood pressure.

They found replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise each day, like cycling, stair climbing or running, could reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 per cent at population level.

Data also suggested just five minutes of activity a day could help reduce blood pressure.

Hypertension is a major cause of premature death and can lead to several health problems including stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney damage.

The study, published in Circulation, provides a useful pathway for the more than 1.3 billion people with hypertension, or high blood pressure, worldwide.

Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and director of ProPASS, said the findings emphasise “how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management”.

First author Dr Jo Blodgett, from University College London and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said the data suggests more vigorous exercise was the key.

“If you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect,” Dr Blodgett said.