When it comes to exercising for heart health, you don’t want to peak early in your life. Recent studies show that if you want to protect yourself from high blood pressure as you age, you need to play long games and maintain your level of exercise until middle age.
However, according to a survey of more than 5,000 people in four cities in the United States, social factors can make it more difficult for some people to do this than others.
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a research author and epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), said:The work was released in April 2021 American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
While many studies have shown that exercise lowers blood pressure, new studies show that “maintaining young adult physical activity at higher levels than previously recommended” to prevent high blood pressure. It can be particularly important. “
High blood pressure, also known as high blood pressure, is a serious condition affecting billions of people around the world. It can cause a heart attack or stroke. It is also a risk factor for developing dementia in later years.
According to the World Health Organization, more than one in four men and about one in five women have hypertension. But why is it often called a “silent killer” because most people with high blood pressure don’t even know they have high blood pressure?
However, there are ways to improve high blood pressure. The focus of this study is exercise.
More than 5,100 adults were enrolled in this study and over 30 years followed their health with physical assessments and questionnaires on exercise habits, smoking status, and alcohol intake.
In each clinical evaluation, blood pressure was measured three times at 1-minute intervals and participants were grouped into four categories by race and gender for data analysis.
Overall, levels of physical activity dropped from 18 to 40 years among male, female, and both racial groups. Over the next few decades, the incidence of high blood pressure increases and physical activity decreases.
Researchers suggest that this is an important window for young adults to intervene to prevent middle-aged hypertension in health promotion programs designed to promote exercise. increase.
“Almost half of the young adult participants show that the level of physical activity is not optimal and is significantly associated with the development of hypertension, and that the minimum standard of physical activity needs to be raised,” he said. According to Jason Nagata, the lead author and expert at UCSF. Young adult medicine.
Researchers examined people who exercised moderately five hours a week in early adulthood (twice the minimum currently recommended for adults), and found that this level of activity significantly increased the risk of high blood pressure. It turned out to reduce. Habits up to 60 years old.
“Achieve at least twice the current minimum adult [physical activity] The guidelines may be more beneficial in preventing hypertension than simply meeting the minimum guidelines, “the researchers wrote in the paper.
However, strengthening weekly physical activity is not easy in the face of life-changing decisions and increasing responsibilities.
“This may be the case, especially after graduating from high school, when young adults move to college, workforce, and parent-child relationships, and their opportunities for physical activity diminish as their leisure time is eroded,” Nagata said.
As for another calm truth, this study also showed how black men and women experience significantly different health trajectories compared to white counterparts. At age 40, white male and female physical activity levels peaked, but black participants continued to decline.
By 1945, black women outnumbered white men in the rate of hypertension, while white women in the study experienced the lowest rate of hypertension throughout the middle ages.
And by the age of 60, 80 to 90 percent of black men and women had hypertension, while about half of white men and women had just under 70 percent.
The research team has put these well-known racial disparities into a number of social and economic factors. High school education has received attention, but these factors have not been evaluated in this study.
“Young black men may be more involved in sports, but socio-economic factors, neighborhoods, and work and family responsibilities can impede continued involvement in physical activity until adulthood. “Mr. Nagata said.
The study was published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The version of this article was originally published in April 2021.
..
