Korte wandelingen zeker zo goed voor de bloeddruk.*
Goed nieuws voor zij die niet dagelijks een uur kunnen bewegen. Uit een klein Amerikaans onderzoek onder 20 mensen met licht verhoogde bloeddruk (120-140 over 80-89) blijkt dat vier keer per dag 10 minuten wandelen zelfs nog beter is voor de bloeddruk. Zowel na 1 uur wandelen als na 4x 10 minuten wandelen zakt de bloeddruk evenveel, doch in het eerste geval duurt die verlaging ca. 7 uur terwijl bij de korte wandelingen de bloeddruk wel 11 uur lager blijft.
Four
Short Walks a Day Ease Blood Pressure
-- Taking four short walks a day to lower
your blood pressure may be more effective than one long walk, a new study finds.
Reporting in the September issue of the Journal
of Hypertension, Indiana University researchers compared the effects of four
10-minute walks to one 40-minute walk in reducing blood pressure in 20 people
with prehypertension.
Prehypertension, in which blood pressure
ranges from 120-139 mm Hg over 80-89 mm Hg, is an elevated blood pressure level
that will usually progress to high blood pressure. High blood pressure is
associated with heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure, stroke and
blindness.
The researchers found that while the short
walks and long walk decreased the participants' blood pressure by the same
amount, the effect lasted for 11 hours after the short walks, compared to seven
hours after the long walk.
"We had no idea the short bouts would
be better," Janet Wallace, professor in the Department of Kinesiology at
the Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said
in a prepared statement. "Most studies found in the literature report the
long, continuous session as more effective for many variables."
But these findings may motivate people who
cannot seem to fit long bouts of activity in their schedule.
"The biggest problem for most people
is that they don't have time," Wallace said. "You might think, 'I
don't have the time to go to the gym or work out for 40 minutes, but I might
have the time to do 10 minutes here, 10 minutes here and another 10 minutes here.'
Four 10-minute walks would be ideal."
(Okt. 2006)