BLOOD PRESSURE - LOW BLOOD PRESSURE LIFESTYLE

Reducing your risk factors, eating a healthy diet, and taking the right supplements all contribute to healthy blood pressure. But that's only part of the story. The human body was built to move, and we can decrease our blood pressure by increasing our activity level.

Oh, how we love to sink into the couch, pick up the remote, and gaze passively at the newest reality series on television. It's easy and it's comfortable. Unfortunately, it's also eroding our health, including our blood pressure.

Sadly, we're a culture of couch potatoes, with fewer than 50 percent of us exercising on a regular basis (at least three hours per week). We all want to get fit, but we don't want to get moving. However, conquering our inertia leads to a big payoff: Consistent physical activity helps us control blood pressure in a number of important ways.

Positive Effects of Exercise

Even the most math-averse among us can figure it out: If we burn fewer calories than we consume, we're going to get fatter. People who diet without exercising are far more likely to gain back the weight than those who adopt and stick with an exercise program.

Exercise reduces weight in three ways:

 Food in, energy out. Even if you continue to eat exactly as you have before, and start exercising at least four times a week, you will lose 30 pounds in one year.

 Afterburn. Your basal metabolic rate is stimulated for four to 24 hours after vigorous physical activity, so you keep burning more calories.

 Increased lean body mass. Muscle burns more calories than any other part of the body. When you have more lean muscle mass, you use fat as fuel more efficiently. Exercise also increases the "other" lean body mass, bone mass.

Physical activity can specifically chip away visceral fat the "toxic" abdominal fat implicated in insulin resistance. One study looked at the effect of exercise on 175 overweight, sedentary adults in North Carolina. They were split up into groups that remained sedentary, got low amounts of moderate exercise, or got high amounts of vigorous exercise (the equivalent of jogging 17 miles a week). After six months, the sedentary group gained visceral fat, the group that got low amounts of exercise stayed the same, and the group that got the most exercise lost seven percent of their visceral fat

Naturally, blood pressure isn't isolated from everything else in the body. It's part and parcel of the entire cardiovascular system. Exercise relieves stress, strengthens the heart, improves blood flow, and decreases resting heart rate. Not surprisingly, a sedentary lifestyle is associated with a higher incidence of hypertension and other cardiovascular problems

How exactly does physical activity affect blood pressure? One theory is that aerobic exercise chips away at the resistance to blood flow by dilating the millions of arterioles (tiny offshoots of the arteries) in the body. Physical activity also lessens the heart's workload by training it to pump more efficiently

Researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., looked at the effect of treadmill exercise on the cardiovascular health of 72 office and laboratory employees who had been formerly sedentary. After three months, participants showed improved oxygen consumption and reductions in diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, and LDL ("bad") cholesterol.

If we want healthy blood pressure, we need healthy blood sugar levels. Exercise both strength training and aerobic exercise improves insulin sensitivity. First, it helps erode deep belly fat, the kind that increases our likelihood of developing insulin resistance. Second, consistent physical activity reduces blood sugar levels by helping the cells absorb sugar from the bloodstream.

Duration of exercise may count more than intensity for insulin-resistant individuals. In a study featured in the Journal of Applied Physiology, overweight or obese volunteers were randomly assigned to a low-intensity, longer duration exercise program (12 miles of jogging for 170 minutes each week) or a high-intensity, shorter duration exercise program (20 miles of jogging for 115 minutes per week). Although insulin sensitivity increased in both groups, the 170-minute-per-week group experienced more substantial benefits.

In other words, longer periods of moderate exercise may improve your insulin sensitivity more effectively than shorter bursts of intense activity.

As we discussed earlier, stress can send your blood pressure soaring. But exercise is a proven stress buster. Consistent, vigorous physical activity promotes relaxation and deep, restful sleep.

How does it work? When you're experiencing a stress reaction, your adrenal glands work overtime to pump out adrenaline. Exercise burns off the excess adrenaline that would otherwise generate more stress symptoms. In addition, physical activity triggers the release of endorphins, "feel-good" brain chemicals that act as natural opiates. Research indicates that vigorous aerobic exercise can increase endorphin levels five-fold.

A recent meta-analysis featured in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Physiology evaluated 49 studies on the link between exercise and anxiety. The authors of this report found that individuals who worked out experienced greater relief from anxiety than either those who were treated in other ways or not at all.

Individualized Exercise Plan

The old adage is true: the best exercise is the one you can stick with. If the gym is not your style, lace up a good pair of walking shoes and walk a half an hour every day. If you've got achy joints, swimming or water aerobics may be more your style. If you're a social animal, you might be motivated by working out with a friend. Whatever gets you moving is the right activity for you. However, a combination of aerobic exercise, mildto-moderate strength training, and stretching yields the best results.

 Aerobic exercise speeds up your heart rate and breathing rate. It includes activities such as stair-climbing, jogging, rowing, brisk walking, swimming, biking, and dancing. The  Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide recommends getting aerobic exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Aerobic exercise reduces blood pressure by widening the blood vessels, thereby enhancing blood flow.

A meta-analysis from Tulane University looked at the impact of aerobic exercise on blood pressure. In most of the studies covered in this report, participants in the control groups were told not to change their usual lifestyle, including exercise. The authors associated aerobic activity with a significant drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

 Strength training, also known as resistance training, involves repetitions of muscle contractions. Strength training increases strength, lean muscle, bone density, and insulin sensitivity

In a University of Maryland study, 21 previously sedentary older men and women with borderline hypertension embarked on a whole-body strength-training program. After six months, researchers discovered lower blood pressure in both men and women.

Strength training may also benefit adolescents. In a 1997 report entitled "Athletic Participation by Children and Adolescents Who Have Systemic Hypertension," The American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness recommends weight training for adolescents with hypertension.

Note: Strength training may help reduce blood pressure in the long run, but it should be approached with caution. Resistance exercise can temporarily raise blood pressure. People with hypertension or other cardiovascular concerns are urged to speak with a healthcare practitioner before embarking on a strength-training program. Always start slowly and with light weights.

 Stretching involves the slow lengthening of the muscles. Consistent stretching improves our range of motion, and muscle function, and decreases the risk of muscle sprains and injuries

Specifically, stretching exercises may help pregnant women avoid preeclampsia, which is characterized by hypertension, protein in the urine, and water retention. It affects approximately five percent of pregnant women.

A study from the University of North Carolina's School of Nursing compared the effects of walking with the effects of stretching in two groups of pregnant women. Both groups had experienced preeclampsia in previous pregnancies and had been sedentary before the study. The rate of preeclampsia among the walkers was 14.6 percent; among the stretchers, it was 2.6 percent.Yoga is an ancient system of exercise that emphasizes long, gradual stretches. It appears to lower blood pressure through the following mechanisms:

•     By activating the relaxation response, yoga reduces adrenaline levels and therefore blood pressure.
•     Tense muscles tighten the blood vessels, thereby raising blood pressure. Yoga stretches those muscles, pulling blood pressure back down.
•     Yoga relieves blood-pressure-raising stress.
•     Consistent yoga practice makes the blood less sticky, thereby reducing the risk of blood clotting.
•     Some yoga postures improve blood supply to the kidneys and adrenal glands, organs that regulate blood pressure.
•     Consistent yoga practice may decrease levels of aldosterone and vasopressin, stress hormones that constrict the blood vessels.

By emphasizing slow, controlled breathing, yoga gives us more control over the vasomotor center of the brain. Breathing quickly and shallowly typically in response to stress tends to throw the vasomotor center function out of balance, which may raise blood pressure.

Other Lifestyle Factors

Diet, judicious use of supplements, and exercise are all important ways to help control blood pressure. But other factors affect blood pressure, too: smoking, alcohol intake, sleep, and social and emotional well-being.

Cigarettes

Although cigarette smoking raises blood pressure temporarily, it does not appear to directly cause long-term hypertension. However, smoking does increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in people who already have high blood pressure.

Researchers analyzed information on 563,144 people in the Asia Cohort Studies Collaboration. Smokers with the highest blood pressure were more than nine times more likely to experience a stroke than smokers with the lowest blood pressure. The lead author of the study, Koshi Nakamura, MD, PhD, said that smoking and hypertension have a synergistic effect, worsening the damage that each risk factor causes on its own.

Alcohol

Dosage determines the difference between a medicine and poison, and that's true for alcohol, as well. Moderate drinkers may even reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, a recent study from the Aristotelean University in Greece linked moderate consumption of wine, beer, or liquor with a lower rate of insulin resistance, peripheral arterial disease (narrowed blood vessels), coronary heart disease, and overall cardiovascular disease.

"Moderate" is the key word. One drink is considered 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of liquor. The Mayo Clinic recommends no more than one drink daily for women, and two drinks daily for men.

For those imbibing three or more drinks a day, however, the news is grim. While low alcohol consumption is linked with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, stroke, and cardiovascular disease, heavy drinking is associated with a higher prevalence of these problems. If you drink, drink moderately. If you don't drink, don't start. Alcohol is the second most widespread drug addiction, after tobacco.

Data showed a higher rate of hypertension among people who were getting less sleep.

Sleep

What do we give up when we work, go to school, take care of a family, get involved in our community, go to the gym, and try to carve out time for a social life? We lose sleep. And if we're getting fewer than six hours of sleep a night, we're increasing our risk of developing hypertension.

An analysis of NHANES data showed a higher rate of hypertension among people who were getting less sleep. The author of this analysis wrote, "Prolonged short sleep durations could lead to hypertension through extended exposure to raised 24-hour blood pressure and heart rate, elevated sympathetic nervous system activity, and increased salt retention."

In addition, when we're short on sleep, we often self-medicate with coffee to stay awake and alert. As discussed earlier, excessive caffeine triggers the release of cortisol, which contributes to the buildup of abdominal fat, which is implicated in insulin resistance, which is characterized by hypertension. Clearly, when you short-change your sleep, you short-change your health.

Quality is just as important as duration of sleep, and sleep apnea sabotages sleep quality. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs more commonly in overweight men with high blood pressure. Muscles relax when one falls asleep, and the uvula, tonsils, and tongue may block the airways. Someone with sleep apnea may wake up hundreds of times a night without remembering it. However, because of this disturbed sleep, the individual often feels tired. Sleep apnea is potentially fatal, boosting the risk of stroke, congestive heart failure, and heart attack. Failing to breathe while sleeping can also cause death.

A recent study featured in the Medical Science Monitor compared individuals with no OSA, those with mild-to-moderate OSA, and those with severe OSA. Researchers found that those with severe OSA showed the highest level of cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and blood glucose levels.

If you suspect you or someone you love may have sleep apnea, talk to a doctor. The simplest treatment is to lose excess weight, stay away from alcohol and sedatives, and sleep in different positions. Other treatments are available.

Transcendental Meditation

Ours is a society that has forgotten to "listen to the sound of silence." Most of us are bombarded with sounds (the good and the bad voluntarily or not) from the moment we wake until the time we fall asleep. Our ancestors benefited from periods of "sit silent and do nothing," to use a term coined by Orthodox priest Symeon Rodger in The 5 Pillars of Health.

Despite its New Age connotations, the health-supporting value of transcendental meditation (TM),  a form of meditation using a mantra, has been extensively researched. Researchers from the University of Kentucky's College of Medicine conducted a meta-analysis of nine randomized, controlled trials on TM and blood pressure. Compared to the control groups, the TM groups showed "clinically meaningful" reductions in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In fact, lead researcher James Anderson, MD, states that blood pressure reductions this significant, over time, could lower the incidence of strokes and heart attack by 15 percent. Robert Schneider, MD, director of the Institute of Natural Medicine and Prevention, adds that TM reduces stress and enhances balance of the mind and body

TM does not call for any type of belief system. It entails sitting comfortably for 15 to 20 minutes daily, with eyes closed, while repeating a specific mantra.