High blood pressure: Doing this simple everyday task will help to lower your reading – Express

Having high blood pressure is an extremely common condition with many living their lives unaware of the potential dangers lurking in their body. High blood pressure is a hallmark for serious and sometimes even life-threatening conditions such as heart attack or strokes. Having high blood pressure however does not need to be a life-sentence and by incorporating this easy task into your life will help to reduce your reading.

High blood pressure is also known as hypertension and is often caused by living an unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle.

Adults should aim to be active daily and when it comes to reducing the risks caused by having hypertension, every little helps.

Health experts and news reports suggest that if you do 90 minutes of housework a day you could significantly cut your chances of developing heart disease, stroke and hypertension.

MET (metabolic equivalent)is a measure of how much energy one burns doing a certain physical activity and is used to express the intensity of an activity.

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Dr Chris van Tulleken teamed up with Dr Andy Blannin from the University of Birmingham to find out which household chores had the highest metabolic equivalent. Eight volunteers were recruited and each one was asked to wear activity monitors whilst they carried out a range of everyday household tasks.

The data from the monitors allowed Dr Tulleken and Dr Blannin to work out how much physical work the volunteers were doing.

The household chores involved in the study included ironing, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, washing the care, cleaning the windows, mowing the lawn and planting flowers with interesting results.

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Data results were adjusted to account for each volunteers age, weight and physical fitness.

Ironing and dusting both scored below three METs, however all of the other household chores had a score higher than three and so count as moderate intensity exercise.

The highest MET was mowing the lawn, followed by washing the car, planting, mopping, vacuuming and washing windows.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity.

It's strongly advised to aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity most days of the week.

If a person can't set aside that much time at once, shorter bursts of activity count, too.

Workouts can also be done into three 10-minute sessions of aerobic exercise with the same benefit as one 30-minute session.

You don't need to spend hours in the gym every day to benefit from aerobic activity, said the Mayo Clinic.

The site continued: Simply adding moderate physical activities to your daily routine will help.

Any physical activity that increases your heart and breathing rates is considered aerobic activity, including household chores, such as mowing the lawn, raking leaves, gardening or scrubbing the floor.

By ensuring you are moving more and cutting down on sodium and processed foods in your diet, a lower reading and a reduced risk of hypertension can be a reality.

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High blood pressure: Doing this simple everyday task will help to lower your reading - Express