A new study published in Hypertension suggests tailoring blood pressure (BP) treatment to a patient’s exercise level may help, because people with elevated but controlled hypertension saw an increase in BP during physical activity.
The researchers, led by Benjamin Chant, a doctoral student at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, sought to measure the impact of sudden exercise on BP levels.
The study cohort included 59 people divided into four groups—16 subjects were normotensives, 16 subjects had uncontrolled BP but were treated for hypertension, 16 subjects had controlled BP and were treated for hypertension, and 11 subjects were untreated hypertensives. The study subjects were asked to take exercise tests on stationary bicycles. The researchers measured participants’ BP every 90 seconds until they could not exercise further.
The researchers found BP increased among everyone except for the normotensive group.
“BP responses to exercise are not usually considered, despite the fact that exaggerated responses are predictive of end-organ damage, cardiovascular disease, ischemic stroke, acute myocardial infarction and total mortality,” Chant and colleagues wrote. “Our data indicate, for the first time, that an exaggerated BP response to exercise persists, despite patients achieving guideline recommended BP targets with medication. This may explain why treated-controlled hypertensive patients have an elevated risk of cardiovascular events and mortality versus people with normotension.”
The researchers noted some limitations to their study including self-reported medication logs, consumption of different classes of medications, pain from the exercise which may have impacted BP and a limited study cohort, among others.
Still, the researchers advise for patients with hypertension to continue exercising.
“We don’t want to put people off exercising because it’s been proven that training to be fitter does help control blood pressure, which in return reduces your risk of having a heart attack and stroke,” said senior author Emma Hart, University of Bristol’s School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, in a prepared statement issued by the American Heart Association.
Hart added the researchers believe it may be more important for blood pressure control during physical activity, rather than just at rest. “Because if you’re getting these repeated rises in excessive blood pressure, then that’s probably not good for your cardiovascular system.”
As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.