Numerous population surveys have shown that people who say they exercise regularly have lower blood pressure than those who say they don't. However, people who exercise also tend to weigh less and some people have suggested that it is the weight rather than the exercise that is important.
A convincing study has been carried out by Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger in Harvard alumni. In his study he followed the progress of 15,000 alumni for 6 to 10 years and found that men who exercised regularly were less likely to become hypertensive than men who did not. This could not be accounted for by any differences in body weight. Furthermore, those men who had been athletes in college but who then stopped exercising were just as likely to develop high blood pressure as men who had never exercised.
