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Excerpt
Prehypertension has been recently defined as a new classification of blood pressure (BP) by the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7). This new classification categorizes additional 45 to 50 million Americans as prehypertensive, who were normotensive under the previous guidelines. JNC 7 recommended exercise, one of major lifestyle modifications, as an initial step for prehypertensive individuals to prevent the progression to hypertension. The efficacy of exercise for hypertension has been extensively studied. However, the efficacy of exercise for prehypertension has not been reported. PURPOSE: This study utilized the exercise prescription for hypertension to observe the BP response following acute exercise in prehypertensive adults. It was hypothesized that a traditional exercise prescription for hypertension would be effective for prehypertension. METHODS: Fifteen adults (9 men & 6 women; age: 50.1 ± 3.49 years; BMI: 26.5 ± 1.29 kg/m2; mean ± standard errors) were identified as prehypertensive based on their screening BP values (121.4 ± 2.07 mm Hg/79.5 ± 1.53 mm Hg). Ambulatory BP (Accutracker II) following an acute exercise treatment (50 minutes of treadmill walking at 50 % peak oxygen uptake) was compared to ambulatory BP at corresponding times on a control day without exercise in a randomized design. Hourly BP averages following both the exercise and control treatments were calculated for 12 hours. Paired T tests for systolic and diastolic BPs were performed at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Systolic BP following an acute exercise exhibited the reduction at the second hour (4.7 ± 1.78 mm Hg, p = 0.019). Diastolic BP following an acute exercise exhibited the reduction at the third hour (6.7 ± 2.08 mm Hg, p = 0.011) and the twelfth hour (8.5 ± 3.35 mm Hg, p = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Traditional exercise prescription for hypertension produces an immediate BP reduction lasting 2–3 hours in prehypertnesive adults. This exercise prescription for BP reduction is not as effective in prephypertension as in hypertension. Thus, more appropriate exercise prescription might need to be investigated for prehypertensive adults to control BP.
