EFFICACY AND POSITION OF ENDURANCE TRAINING AS A NONDRUG THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF ARTERIAL-HYPERTENSION

Regular conditioning has been well documented to exert a beneficial ef fect on cardiovascular risk factors and to improve overall cardiovascu lar health and to reduce the incidence of coronary disease, There are conflicting results concerning the effect of physical exercise on bloo d pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients and its importance in the tre atment of hypertension, Therefore 10 male patients with mild arterial hypertension were studied in order to define the BP response to long-t erm aerobic training (60 min twice a week) under resting conditions, d uring standardised ergometric workload, during isometric exercise, dur ing cold presser testing and during 24-h BP monitoring, After 18 month s of regular training there were significant reductions in arterial pr essures at rest, during and after standardised ergometry and during is ometric and cold presser testing when compared with pre-training, The heart rate also decreased significantly during exercise testing thus i mplying a decrease in myocardial oxygen consumption, After long-term t raining, a reduction in systolic and diastolic BP could also be shown during 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, These results demonstrate that l ong-term aerobic training leads to a decrease in systolic and diastoli c BP at rest, during exercise and during 24-h BP monitoring and imply a beneficial effect in the management of hypertension that is nearly c omparable to that of drug therapy.