Amount of Exercise Key to Lowering Kids' Blood Pressure

Amount of Exercise Key to Lowering Kids' Blood Pressure
TUESDAY, Dec. 11 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to loweringchildren's blood pressure, the amount of exercise they get may be moreimportant than the intensity.
That's the suggestion of a British study of 5,505 boys and girls, ages11-12, who wore movement detectors for a week.
The researchers found that a higher amount of total physical activitywas associated with almost half a millimeter of mercury reduction in bothsystolic and diastolic blood pressure. The study findings were publishedDec. 11 in the journal Hypertension.
"Even after taking into account a number of possible confoundingfactors, such as social class and maternal health, associations betweenphysical activity and blood pressure were weakened, but remained. If theseassociations translate into those of similar magnitude in adulthood, thiscould be of public health significance," lead author Sam Leary, a lecturerin statistics at the University of Bristol's Department of Oral and DentalScience, said in a prepared statement.
The researchers did find that 15 minutes a day of moderate to vigorousactivity was associated with lower blood pressure of at least a half amillimeter of mercury. However, when they looked at total amounts ofexercise and moderate and physical exercise together, they found theassociation between amount of activity and blood pressure remainedsimilar, while the association between moderate and vigorous exercise andblood pressure was substantially weaker.
"Our study findings suggest that encouraging children to increase theirlevels of physical activity may help reduce their current blood pressure.The higher levels of physical activity likely will track into adulthoodand be associated with a lower adult blood pressure and thus contribute toa reduction in cardiovascular risk," Leary said.
Only 5 percent of the boys and 0.5 percent of the girls in the studymet the recommended guidelines for 60 minutes of moderate to vigorousphysical activity a day. The median was 25 minutes a day for boys and 16minutes a day for girls.
Children that met the guidelines had, on average, 2 mmHg lowersystolic and 1 mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure readings than those whodidn't meet the guidelines.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about children's blood pressure.