Exercise to Control or Prevent High Blood Pressure

I'm a fairly active guy. I train for and fight in amateur mixed martial arts competitions, I teach martial arts, I have three children and I'm only 37. Two months before my last fight in October '06, I was lifting weights, doing cardio-aerobic training, and grappling/fighting/sparring twice a day, four days per week for about an hour for session.

You can imagine my surprise, when I woke up one morning in November '06 with the left side of my face tingling. I went to work that Monday and talked to one of the physician's assistants I work with, and he was concerned I'd suffered a neck injury and the injury was pinching one of my cervical nerves.

My friend convinced me to go to my doctor, I ended up seeing on of my doctor's PAs who told me she believed I was suffering from hypertension. At that interview my blood pressure was one sixty over something like one hundred. She put me on a low dose of an accepted blood pressure medicine and I scheduled a follow up in a week.

In one week, I met with my doctor who ordered a boat load of laboratory tests for me. He had everything tested: my liver function, my kidney function, my thyroid function, my triglycerides, and an x-ray of my spine, I mean everything.

All my lab tests came back showing I'm a very healthy guy except for the beginnings of arthritis in my spine. So where did the high blood pressure come from - at this point it had come down only a little. Out of danger but not low enough.

My mother and grandmother have high blood pressure. I work as a mental health clinician in a maximum security prison, and I was taking ibuprofen like it was candy due to pain from injuries suffered during fighting and training. On top of that, I was taking antihistamines with pseudo-ephedrine like they were candy so I could keep training even though I had a serious sinus infection. The conclusion I came to is that my high blood pressure was lifestyle related spiced with some genetic factors.

Today, my blood pressure is a steady 120/80. I changed a number of things in my life. I quit eating obvious salt - it's hidden in everything. I vowed to be less stressed at work and take work just a little less serious, and I changed my exercise.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, in their 2004 position paper, exercise is the cornerstone for treating hypertension. They go on to state in this paper, that endurance activities such as "walking, jogging, running, or cycling coupled with resistance training help to prevent the development of hypertension and lower BP in adults."

According to WebMD, new guidelines call for "30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (primarily aerobic exercise, which helps get heart rates to 70%-85% of an individual's maximum heart rate, or endurance exercise supplemented by resistance exercise).

This is the change I made: I now bike or jog at least 30 minutes four or five times per week. This was fairly easy for me due to being pretty active to begin with. I also stopped taking cold medicines with pseudo-ephedrine and stopped using ibuprofen for pain relief (all at the recommendation of my doctor)

If you struggle with high blood pressure, consult your doctor or PA and then begin a regular exercise program in which you are able to get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, four times per week. This can be as simple as walking - anything to get your heart rate up a bit. The American College of Sports Medicine also recommends that if you're overweight you should combine exercise with a weight loss program. This could be as simple as having a salad with every meal and decreasing your serving sizes.

Anyone can develop hypertension or high blood pressure but through diet, exercise, and perhaps medicine it's easily controllable. Don't compromise your health simply because you were unwilling to make some changes in your life that could extend your life.