New
Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
readers...roll mouse over, click on
highlighted links in stories to review items
from Amazon
Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Exercise
can lead to drop in Blood Pressure, if
Patients get message
Newswise — Working up a sweat could be the
most important lifestyle change people with
high blood pressure — or hypertension — can
make in their daily lives. Yet, although
patients who receive exercise counseling
seem to listen, few physicians actually take
the time to talk about physical activity
with their patients, a large nationwide
study finds.
Just over one-third of people with a
hypertension diagnosis said a clinician told
them to increase their physical activity to
help lower their blood pressure.
They listened.
Seventy-one percent of the patients with
high blood pressure increased physical
activity and saw a drop in blood pressure as
a result.
“The blood pressure reduction
was…unexpected, as this was not a trial to
determine whether exercise would reduce
blood pressure,” said lead study author
Josiah Halm, M.D., a clinical assistant
professor of medicine and hypertension
specialist at the University of Wisconsin
School of Medicine and Public Health. He
added it was safe to conclude that exercise
led to the blood pressure drop.
Medication alone helps only about a third of
all patients with hypertension.
The study appears in the summer issue of the
journal Ethnicity & Disease. The data come
from the seventh National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III),
conducted by the National Center for Health
Statistics of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
During 1988 to 1994 study period, 17,474
people completed household interviews,
physical examinations and lab tests. Of
these, 4,686 reported a previous diagnosis
of high blood pressure.
Halm said that physicians should be
promoting the use of exercise to help manage
hypertension, even if they do not think they
have time to. “Clinicians will always decry
not having enough time to counsel, but a
method of using a prescription pad with
exercise recommendations as suggested in the
study will help solve this quandary.”
Robert Block, M.D., agreed. He said the
findings point “to the fact that preventive
health services do not practically reach a
very high priority in our medical system.”
Block is an assistant professor in the
Division of Epidemiology in the Department
of Community and Preventive Medicine and
consulting lipidologist in Preventive
Cardiology at the University of Rochester.
He had no affiliation with the study.
“If someone becomes ill with a heart attack,
many thousands of dollars are spent without
question, but if a physician needs to spend
time counseling patients, insurers typically
do not reimburse well for these vital
services,” Block said.
Although the NHANES III data was over a
decade old, Halm said, “it sets the
benchmark for comparison with current
studies and future studies.”
According to Block, the finding that only 30
percent of people with hypertension received
exercise counseling, “is very unfortunate,
as such counseling is inexpensive
and…recommended by the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force, a very well respected
organization of health prevention experts.”
Ethnicity & Disease is a quarterly medical
journal studying the ethnic patterns of
disease. For more information, contact
ethndis@ishib.org or visit
http://www.ishib.org/ED_index.asp
Halm J, Amoaka E. Physical activity
recommendation for hypertension management:
does healthcare provider advice make a
difference? Ethn Dis 18(3), 278-82, 2008.
...
...
...