To spare your heart, you have to walk a kilometer in 30 minutes every day

The sedentary lifestyle is not good for our body. Researchers at the University of Buffalo (United States) have shown that in women, the practice of walking at a moderate pace for 30 minutes a day significantly reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure. The results of their study were published in the journal Hypertension.

The harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle

Very few studies have looked at sedentary time and heart failure risk, and none have looked at older women in whom sedentary lifestyle and heart failure are common. Walking and moving are activities that must be integrated into daily life to stay healthy. World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations recommend walking at least 30 minutes a day. For the researchers, these measures should be good, but they suggest doing an active walk, covering 1km in 30 minutes, protecting the heart and improving blood pressure.

To establish a link between walking and hypertension in women, the researchers looked at the cases of 83,435 postmenopausal women, between the ages of 50 and 79. At the start of the 11-year experiment, none of them had hypertension, heart failure, coronary heart disease, or a history of stroke. Likewise, they were all able to walk without any problems. The walking volume and walking speed of these women were measured. The researchers noted that slower women had a risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

The faster the walk, the more the risks decrease

During the follow-up of the experiment, 38,230 cases of hypertension were identified and 1,402 women were hospitalized for heart failure. Compared to women who spent more than six and a half hours lying down or sitting, the risk of hospitalization for heart failure was 15% higher than for active women. This figure even rises to 42% for those who sit more than nine hours a day.

Women who spend more than 9.5 hours sitting or lying down would have a 42% higher risk of developing heart failure in the next decade. This result remains unchanged even when physical activity levels and risk factors for heart failure such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and heart attacks are considered.

“Even among women who reported recreational physical activity levels within current guidelines, the risk of heart failure was high among women who also reported more than 9.5 hours per day of sedentary activity.says Michael LaMonte, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Buffalo School of Public Health. The latter data underlines the need not only to promote greater physical activity for the prevention of heart failure, but also to favor the interruption of a sedentary lifestyle during the day.“

A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of atherosclerosis

The sedentary lifestyle promotes lower cardiometabolic risk factor profiles, which increase the likelihood of the onset and progression of arterial atherosclerosis and blood clots in the arteries. They are precursors of angina pectoris and heart attack, of which heart failure is one of the main consequences. The sedentary lifestyle also reduces the pumping efficiency of the heart, which is a major manifestation of clinical heart failure.

The team is waiting for the results of another study that uses an accelerometer to see if getting up to interrupt sedentary time is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers admit, however, that their study doesn’t tell them whether a sedentary lifestyle leads directly to a reduction in the heart’s pumping efficiency or whether it exacerbates the effect of another cause.