Walking to Lower Blood Pressure

After your weight loss surgery in Ypsilanti, you can start forming healthy habits to optimize your weight loss efforts. Fortunately, many of these habits can help improve some disorders and health issues that you may be suffering from. Walking, for instance, has been shown to improve blood pressure levels.

What Is High Blood Pressure?

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a condition where there is high pressure in the arteries. As that pressure increases, so does the risk of developing more serious health concerns, such as heart disease or stroke.

Hypertension is closely linked with obesity. Studies have shown that excess body weight accounts for about 26% of cases of hypertension in men and about 28% in women.

How Walking Lowers Blood Pressure

As you walk:

• Your systolic blood pressure—the measurement of the pressure in the arteries as your heart beats—will increase. This improves blood flow and increases the amount of oxygen available to your working muscles.
• Your blood vessels may dilate to allow for the increased blood flow, which would lower your diastolic blood pressure—the measurement of the pressure in the arteries between heartbeats.

Studies suggest that walking for as little as thirty minutes, three times a week, is enough to lower blood pressure and start improving your health and fitness levels. Those thirty minutes can even be divided into ten minute segments throughout the day, and you’ll still receive the same health benefits.

While running or other intense exercises may provide more significant effects and improvements on health conditions like hypertension, walking is a much more sustainable activity for someone after weight loss surgery. It’s easy on the joints and provides a healthy cardiovascular workout, despite being low intensity and low impact.