New research suggests that adding a small amount of physical activity – such as uphill walking or stair-climbing – into your day may help to lower blood pressure. 

Just five minutes of activity a day was estimated to potentially reduce blood pressure, while replacing sedentary behaviours with 20-27 minutes of exercise a day, including uphill walking, stair-climbing, running and cycling, was also estimated to lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in blood pressure. 

The study, published in Circulation, was carried out by experts from the ProPASS (Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep) Consortium, an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London (UCL). 

Joint senior author Prof Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the ProPASS Consortium from the Charles Perkins Centre, said: “High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication.” 

“The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasises how powerful short bouts of higher-intensity movement could be for blood pressure management.” 

Hypertension, or a consistent elevated blood pressure level, is one of the biggest causes of premature death globally. Affecting 1.28 billion adults around the world, it can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and many other health problems, and is often described as the “silent killer” due to its lack of symptoms. 

The research team analysed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behaviour with another across the day is associated with blood pressure. 

Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure throughout the day and night. 

Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behaviour (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and more vigorous exercise such as running, cycling or stair climbing. 

The team modelled statistically what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behaviour for another in order to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise a day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 per cent at a population level. 

First author Dr Jo Blodgett, from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, said: “Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking. 

“The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure. 

“What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running for a bus to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines. 

“For those who don’t do a lot of exercise, walking did still have some positive benefits for blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect.” 

Prof Mark Hamer, joint senior author of the study and ProPASS Deputy Director from UCL, said: “Our findings show how powerful research platforms like the ProPASS consortium are for identifying relatively subtle patterns of exercise, sleep, and sedentary behaviour, that have significant clinical and public health importance.”