Endurance Tests Predict Future Blood Pressure

[Guest guest]

Courtesy Dr. Mikin:

" Endurance Tests Predict Future Blood Pressure

In 1976, 413 high school runners in Finland competed in

a 2000-meter race. At the time of the race and in a follow-up

study twenty-five years later, the faster runners had much lower

blood pressures than the slower ones (International Journal of

Sports Medicine, July-August 2005.)

The researchers wanted to know whether a maximal

endurance test to measure aerobic fitness in adolescence would

predict high blood pressure in adults. This is the first study to

show that faster teen age runners have lower blood pressures

and that the lower blood pressures persist long after they stop

running. In their teens, the faster runners were more fit than the

slower runners, and their dedication may have persisted into later

life. Or the faster teen-age runners may have had some

physiological advantage that kept their blood pressure lower and

made them less likely to suffer heart attacks in later life. Perhaps

the faster runners were genetically superior to the slower

runners, or something in their lifestyles made them faster as

teenagers and also caused them to have lower blood pressures

throughout their lives. Either way, the findings of this study

should encourage early participation in sports and lifelong

exercise. "

Rodney.