By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

Exercise is generally recommended for people with hypertension, and one study of Harvard University graduates showed that men who continued a vigorous exercise program were less likely to develop hypertension than those with a sedentary lifestyle. Less vigorous exercise, such as walking, has been found to be associated with a number of health benefits, but no reports have assessed whether it can delay the onset of hypertension.

Now a study of Japanese men employed by a gas company in Japan has confirmed that it can. It involved more than 6,000 men who were followed for about ten years. They had a medical examination every two years, which included an assessment of how they got to work, their leisure time physical activity, their blood pressure, and other health-related factors. More than 600 men became hypertensive during the ensuing 10 years.

The main finding was that men whose walk to work took more than 10 minutes had a lower risk of developing hypertension in comparison with those whose walking time was less than 10 minutes. For those whose walking time was more than 20 minutes each way, the risk of hypertension was reduced by 30%. This was independent of other factors such as obesity and leisure time physical activity. However, leisure time physical activity was also associated with less hypertension.

Doctor’s comments

One of the factors that made this study feasible is that employees in Japan typically stay in the same job for many years, so that the way they get to work is unlikely to change very much. The effects of walking were separate from the effects of leisure time physical activity, and also from the effects of exercise on body weight. The authors of the study concluded that physicians should recommend walking to work for at least 20 minutes should be incorporated into people’s daily life wherever possible.

Where it was published