Hello all,
           these are the thouhts of Chairman Bob on blood pressure...

  Everyone says that exercise is good for you but no one says why, in
figures. I've been measuring my blood pressure since the heart attack,
and I've got the results of an ECG on a treadmill, so I can actually
put figures to exercise... and its benefits.

  At rest my heart rate was 60 and blood pressure was 130/80. It rose
to 130 and 165/76 after 8 minutes flat out on the treadmill. I walk at
that rate for 40 minutes every morning... so why does it do good to
run your heart hard and your systolic (high value) blood pressure
high?

  The answer comes if you look at BP over the whole day.

  Time      No walk     5K/40min walk at 0730
             BP              BP  
  0700     129/72         129/72  
  0900     128/72         112/73
  1200     131/70         113/65
  1500     130/70         115/62
  1900     126/65         120/62
  2300     130/65         132/65

  Ave      129/69         120/67   -7%
  Diff       60             53     -12%

  The advantage of exercise is not during the walk itself, but
afterwards. A 40-minute walk drops blood pressure for most of the day,
up to 12 hours. In fact, it looks like it would be an advantage to
take a late-night walk even though it falls during sleep. 

  Blood pressure behaves in a queer way. The systolic reading (high
value) goes up and down in a volatile way depending on what's
happening, and the diasystolic reading (low value) lags behind. The
difference is a measure of how hard the heart is working.

  If you get angry or go off your head, systolic pressure rises almost
immediately, from 130/80 to 160/80 say, as the arteries close up, and
an hour later the two come together at around 145/85 for a long time.
If you *exercise*, a similar thing happens... 130/80 goes to 160/80
during exercise, but falls to 110/80 immediately afterwards (your
arteries are wide open to take extra blood), and the two come together
at 120/75 for a long time. Losing your rag can leave you with a BP of
145/85 all day (60 differential)y, and exercise leaves you with 120/75
(45 differential). The damage blood pressure does is a long-term
effect and 10 points is significant.

Regards,
Bob


___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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