Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care
Simerjit Dhaliwal, Thomas Colletti, Sampath Wijesinghe, Caroline Rheaume. Effect of Physical Activity on Systemic Hypertension: A Review & Recommendations. Journal of Family Medicine and Health Care. Vol. 8, No. 3, 2022, pp. 71-75.
doi: 10.11648/j.jfmhc.20220803.14
Systemic hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, and it is the most important but modifiable risk factor for all-cause morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is considered a complex and polygenic medical condition and influenced by genetic, environmental, and social determinants including unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity. Despite the available evidence strongly supporting the positive impact of physical activity in the prevention and treatment of hypertension in primary prevention, challenges remain to the medical and health care communities to incorporate this information into the daily practice of medicine. The purpose of this review is to investigate the effect of physical activity on systemic hypertension by presenting an update of the literature to strengthen current recommendations. Several search engines were reviewed, including PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar using key words, hypertension, and physical activity. Populations under the age of eighteen were excluded from all nineteen reviewed studies. All the reviewed studies concluded that physical activity reduces blood pressure in men and women eighteen years of age and older. Physical activity is a recommended non-pharmacologic tool to treat hypertension. Currently, more than 75% of the US adult population does not meet the recommended physical activity guidelines. Consequently, primary care providers may collaborate with other professional health instructors to educate their patients about the current guidelines and recommendations regarding physical activity, and further discuss the effect of physical activity on hypertension.