Low-intensity walking as mild medication for pressure control in prehypertensive and hypertensive subjects: how far shall we wander?

Low-intensity walking as mild medication for pressure control in prehypertensive and hypertensive subjects: how far shall we wander?
Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2019 Feb 13;:
Authors: Lu Q, Wang SM, Liu YX, Chen H, Zhang R, Zhang WH, Zou YY, Zhou JW, Guo XY, Zhang Y, Huang TL, Liu YH, Zhang SQ, Yamanishi K, Yamanishi H, Higashino H, Okamura H
Abstract
Successful prevention and treatment of hypertension depend on the appropriate combination of antihypertensive drug therapy and nondrug lifestyle modification. While most hypertension guidelines recommend moderate- to high-intensity exercise, we decided to explore a mild yet effective type of exercise to add to hypertension management, especially in populations with complications or frailty. After comparing the short-term cardiovascular effects of low-speed walking versus high-speed walking for 3 kilometers (km) (3 km/h versus 6 km/h) in young, healthy volunteers, we delivered low-speed walking (low-intensity walking, 2.5 metabolic equivalents of task, METs) as exercise therapy in 42 prehypertensive and 43 hypertensive subjects. We found that one session of 3 km low-intensity walking exerted a transient pressure-lowering effect as well as a mild negative chronotropic effect on heart rate in both the prehypertensive and hypertensive subjects; these short-term benefits on blood pressure and heart rate were accompanied by a brief increase in urine β-endorphin output. Then we prescribed regula...

Source: Acta Pharmacologica Sinica - February 13, 2019 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Lu Q, Wang SM, Liu YX, Chen H, Zhang R, Zhang WH, Zou YY, Zhou JW, Guo XY, Zhang Y, Huang TL, Liu YH, Zhang SQ, Yamanishi K, Yamanishi H, Higashino H, Okamura H Tags: Acta Pharmacol Sin Source Type: research