Exercise Reduces Blood Pressure...

HealthDay, August, 2008 by Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter

For people with high blood pressure, exercise can be the most important lifestyle change they can make, researchers say.

Yet two-thirds of doctors don't take the time to tell their patients with high blood pressure about the importance of exercise and physical activity, a new study finds.

"Patients do follow physician recommendations to exercise when instructed to, and patients who follow exercise recommendations tend to have lower systolic blood pressures than those who do not," said lead researcher Dr. Josiah Halm, a hypertension specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

The findings are published in the summer issue of Ethnicity & Disease .

For the study, Halm's team collected data on 17,474 people who participated in...