Blood pressure can rise or fall dramatically in seconds, shooting up in response to a variety of triggers, including exercise, stress, fear, caffeine, or simply standing up too quickly. Although these rapid changes are rarely dangerous, sustained high blood pressure, or hypertension, is major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, kidney problems, and many other conditions. This especially important for people with arthritis who have high rates of hypertension.
“Recent CDC data show that about 53 percent of people with arthritis have high blood pressure. For some arthritis-related conditions, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, the prevalence is even higher,” says Jennifer Hootman, PhD, an epidemiologist who studies adult health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The good news is that high blood pressure can often be prevented, or, if you already have it, controlled or even reversed – and regular exercise can play a major role in lowering blood pressure.
“Blood pressure gauges how hard you heart is having to work to pump blood through you body, or the force of blood against your artery walls,” says Chris Schumann, a clinical exercise physiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “A number of issues can cause hypertension. Arteriolosclerosis, fat buildup inside artery walls, for example, causes stiffening and narrowing of blood vessels, making it harder for your heart to pump blood. High blood pressure can also result from what’s called catecholamine circulation; these stressors, sometimes called ‘fight or flight’ hormones, cause veins and arteries to constrict, and your heart has to push against greater resistance.”
“Although exercise pushes up blood pressure during activity, once you’re done, there’s usually an immediate drop because the exertion releases vasodilators, factors that widen blood vessels and stay in your system for a few hours,” Schumann says. “Over time, regular exercise increases the availability of oxygen in your body and the heart works more efficiently, with fewer beats per minute.”
I think their is a correlation between my BP and my latest "flu" symptom onset. Am I apt to be one of the minority of RA patients who exhibit high BP?
And how do I build up endurance without at least more walkin?
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