Delaying aging blood pressure

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study in men indicates that staying physically fit can delay the rise in blood pressure, especially systolic blood pressure -- the top number in blood pressure – which typically happens as people age.

At the University of South Carolina, researcher Mei Sui found this in about 35 years of data among almost 14,000 men.

“A higher level of cardiorespiratory fitness can significantly delay the natural increase in systolic blood pressure.”

She says high-fit men had almost a decade delay in getting elevated blood pressure on the systolic reading and even longer on diastolic pressure, when the heart relaxes.

The study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.