New research suggests that high blood pressure during and after exercise is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular issues later in life.
The study, appearing in the Journal of the American Heart Association, may help clinicians develop new prognostic tools for cardiovascular issues.
Cardiovascular illnesses relate to issues with a person’s heart or blood vessels. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), these can include heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, arrhythmia, and heart valve problems.
A key issue driving cardiovascular diseases is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States.
High blood pressure occurs when a person’s blood vessels become stiff and narrow. This may be due to lifestyle factors, such as too little physical activity or consuming too much salt, or health issues, such as diabetes or obesity. Sometimes, hypertension may be a combination of lifestyle factors and disease.
The relationship between blood pressure and cardiovascular disease is well known, and the relationship between blood pressure and exercise has been explored before.
However, fewer studies have explored the relationship between blood pressure following exercise in middle age and cardiovascular disease in later life.
The authors of the present study set out to fill this gap in the literature.
To do this, the authors drew on data from the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term study in the U.S. which the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute organize.
The team focused on data from 1,993 participants with an average age of 58 years.
The researchers looked at each participant’s blood pressure following submaximal exercise, that is, exercise slightly below the maximum intensity that each participant could manage.
The study observed two measureme