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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Lowering High Blood Pressure

Aired September 05, 2003 - 09:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is considered the silent killer, and 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. A new study now suggests just a bit of exercise can go a very long way to avoiding hypertension.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta now with us back with us on this "House Call" to talk to about it.

The big question is, how much exercise? Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Bill.

I get to be the good guy here for a little bit. People Talking about a very small amount of exercise possibly lowering the blood pressure in people who have high blood pressure, but are otherwise healthy, specifically talking a about 60 to 90 minutes. This was a Japanese study. That's the conclusion of these Japanese authors. They essentially divided people into five groups. They looked at 270 people over eight weeks and divided them into groups of people who did nothing at all to people who exercise two hour as week. Remember, this is a week now, not a day. And what they found was people who exercised 60 to 90 minutes week had a significant reduction in blood pressure, about 12 millimeters lower on the top number, eight millimeters lower on the bottom number. That's a pretty significant reduction.

They went on to say in fact, Bill, that if you exercise more than 90 minutes a week, it didn't provide any significant additional benefit in terms of reducing blood pressure. So 60 to 90 minutes a week tended to be that magic number -- Bill.

HEMMER: How does that compare right now with current guidelines?

GUPTA: Well, you know, I want to be really clear on this. We're talking about otherwise healthy people who just had elevated blood pressure. For them, this might be a good thing. Current guidelines still say for people who want to be fit, they want to lower their cholesterol, not be obese, lower their blood pressure, all those sorts of things, 30 to 60 minutes a day is still the current guidelines. Again, when you're talking about your overall health, that's going to be your best bet -- Bill.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Have a good weekend, OK. Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Aired September 5, 2003 - 09:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is considered the silent killer, and 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. A new study now suggests just a bit of exercise can go a very long way to avoiding hypertension.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta now with us back with us on this "House Call" to talk to about it.

The big question is, how much exercise? Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Bill.

I get to be the good guy here for a little bit. People Talking about a very small amount of exercise possibly lowering the blood pressure in people who have high blood pressure, but are otherwise healthy, specifically talking a about 60 to 90 minutes. This was a Japanese study. That's the conclusion of these Japanese authors. They essentially divided people into five groups. They looked at 270 people over eight weeks and divided them into groups of people who did nothing at all to people who exercise two hour as week. Remember, this is a week now, not a day. And what they found was people who exercised 60 to 90 minutes week had a significant reduction in blood pressure, about 12 millimeters lower on the top number, eight millimeters lower on the bottom number. That's a pretty significant reduction.

They went on to say in fact, Bill, that if you exercise more than 90 minutes a week, it didn't provide any significant additional benefit in terms of reducing blood pressure. So 60 to 90 minutes a week tended to be that magic number -- Bill.

HEMMER: How does that compare right now with current guidelines?

GUPTA: Well, you know, I want to be really clear on this. We're talking about otherwise healthy people who just had elevated blood pressure. For them, this might be a good thing. Current guidelines still say for people who want to be fit, they want to lower their cholesterol, not be obese, lower their blood pressure, all those sorts of things, 30 to 60 minutes a day is still the current guidelines. Again, when you're talking about your overall health, that's going to be your best bet -- Bill.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Have a good weekend, OK. Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com