It has long been advocated that one key to lowering high blood pressure is to increase your heart rate through aerobic activity for 30 minutes a day. (Technically, cardiologists recommend 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week.) In theory, it seems easy enough, but putting it into practice can be difficult for some, especially during the winter months. If you’re working or have kids, chances are there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything on your to-do list done without adding exercise to the mix.
What if those 30 minutes could be cut down to just five minutes a day? A new study from the University of Colorado at Boulder is proposing just that through a breathing exercise called inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST). The study found that doing IMST for five minutes a day could be even more effective at lowering blood pressure than aerobic exercise or even medication. What exactly is IMST and could it really be as beneficial as the study suggests? A renowned cardiologist not affiliated with the study gives the honest thoughts of it.
Related: 7 tricks to take your blood pressure quickly
What is inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST)?
For the study, 18 participants ages 50 to 79 with high blood pressure (but otherwise healthy) performed IMST training for six weeks. Another group of 18 people (also between the ages of 50 and 79 with high blood pressure but no other health conditions) did a placebo exercise. At the end of six weeks, the researchers found that participants who took IMST experienced an average 9-point drop in blood pressure, which is about the same as someone who exercises for 30 minutes a day or takes blood pressure medication. blood pressure. experience.
So what is IMST? Dr. Howard Weintraub, MD, the clinical director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NYU Langone Health, explains that IMST is performed by breathing through a scaled tube that uses resistance to strengthen the muscles used for breathing. Think of it like strength training for your diaphragm. Similar to how lifting weights in the gym can strengthen your arms, IMST uses resistance to strengthen your diaphragm.
Dr. Weintraub, who is not affiliated with the University of Colorado study but is knowledgeable about IMST, says that IMST is very different from aerobic activity. What they have in common is that both IMST and aerobic exercise make it hard to breathe. The main difference between them is that IMST targets the diaphragm and, unlike aerobic exercise, does not increase the heart rate. He explains that the way IMST was used in the study is that participants took five breaths and then rested for one minute, which they repeated for five minutes. “The general idea of aerobic exercise is that you have a sustained heart rate,” he says. “This would be like telling someone to walk for 15 seconds and then take a minute to recover.” In other words, it prevents the heart rate from rising, something that has been repeatedly shown to effectively lower blood pressure. Also, unlike aerobic exercise, Dr. Weintraub says that IMST will not lead to weight loss, an important point given that Obesity is a risk factor for high blood pressure..
Although we know from scientific studies that aerobic exercise helps lower blood pressure because it strengthens the heart, allowing it to pump more blood with less effort and decreases the force exerted on the arteries, the study researchers were unable to explain why which IMST effectively lowered blood pressure; they simply observed that yes.
Related: From blood sugar to BMI, here are the top health facts you need to know so you can be your own advocate
(swipe to continue reading)
Can IMST really replace aerobic exercise and medication?
While Dr. Weintraub finds this new study on STEMI and blood pressure interesting, he’s not advocating ditching exercise or prescription medications for a five-minute daily breathing exercise. First, he points out that the study is very small; there were only 36 people, which is not comparable to the millions of people taken into account in the many, many studies on aerobic exercise and blood pressure.
Second, he reiterates that the researchers cannot explain the results. With this in mind, more scientific evidence is certainly needed to establish a firm connection between IMST and blood pressure reduction.
Instead, he says where IMST could be helpful is in addition to other healthy habits including regular exercise, eating from the heart.healthy food and take prescription medications (if needed). He says he won’t hurt and could benefit cardiovascular health in a complementary way.
There are other ways that aerobic activity is a better option, in the exercise versus IMST debate. Brisk walking for 30 minutes is free, while IMST requires a special tube and training. Aerobic Activity Also Linked to Mental Health BenefitsIn addition to helping lower depression Y anxiety.
IMST is an interesting idea, but it’s probably not the shortcut some were hoping for. So don’t throw away your sneakers just yet; regular exercise will still do your body a lot of good. And that’s advice worth taking to heart.
Next, Find out why blood pressure rose during the pandemic.
Sources
- Dr. Howard Weintraub, MD, clinical director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NYU Langone Health
- Exercise: A drug-free approach to lowering high blood pressure. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 10/10/22.
- Craighead D, Heinbockel T, et al. Time-efficient inspiratory muscle strength training lowers blood pressure and improves endothelial function, nonbioavailability, and oxidative stress in middle-aged/older adults with above-normal blood pressure. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2021;10(13).
- Cao L, Li X, et al. The effectiveness of aerobic exercise for the hypertensive population: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American journal of hypertension. 2019;21(7):868-876.
- Jiang SZ, Lu W, et al. Obesity and hypertension. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine. 2016;12(4):2395-2399.
- Smith P, Merwin R. The role of exercise in the treatment of mental health disorders: an integrative review. Annual Journal of Medicine. 2021;(72):45-62.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()
{n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}
;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
(function(){
fbq(‘init’, ‘117034125839707’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
var contentId = ‘ci02ad70e6400024dd’;
if (contentId !== ”) {
fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’, {content_ids: [contentId], content_type: ‘product’});
}
})(); .
