Walking just this much more per day can lower your blood pressure: study

A new study finds walking an additional 3,000 steps per day can significantly reduce high blood pressure in older adults with hypertension.

Walking every day is known to give you more energy, reduce your stress and prevent against some chronic conditions, according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, and a new study has identified another reason for you to get your steps in.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease, has found that walking about 3,000 additional steps per day can significantly reduce blood pressure in older adults with hypertension.

According to Linda Pescatello, professor of kinesiology in UConn's College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and co-author of the study, high blood pressure is quite common in Canada.

Data from 2016 to 2019 shows 23 per cent of Canadian adults between the ages 20 and 79 reported a hypertension diagnosis from a health-care professional, taking hypertensive medication or high blood pressure equivalent to stage 2 hypertension, according to Statistics Canada.

“We’ll all get high blood pressure if we live long enough, at least in this country,” Pescatello said in a press release. “That’s how prevalent it is.”

To explore the impacts of increased walking on those with high blood pressure, the study focused on a group of 21 adults, between 68 to 78 years old, who said they lived a mostly sedentary life and only walked about 4,000 steps per day prior to the study.

Based on analysis of other related studies, researchers said getting participants to walk another 3,000 steps a day was seen as a reasonable goal.