Playing football may help women lower their blood pressure

By: Editorial Team | | Published: June 21, 2014 11:36 am

Tags: Blood Pressure BP Football Heart disease in women In the news Women's health

Enjoying the enthusiastic World Cup football match with your friends and family with pumping your fists and thumping your desks by sitting at home. Instead go in for some real action packed football match if lowering your blood pressure levels is your major cause of concern. A latest study revealed that playing football lowered high blood levels in women in the age group of 35-50 years. Playing recreational football for around 15 weeks has caused a significant reduction in the body fat percentage and blood pressure levels in women within this age group.

‘After 15 weeks of participation in recreational football, systolic and diastolic blood pressure had fallen by 12 and 6 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and the women had lost 2.3 kg of fat on average,’ said Magni Mohr from University of Gothenburg in Sweden. ‘The football training produced an impressive reduction in blood pressure that was more than twice as big as with swimming performed over the same period as with football,’ Mohr said. The study involved 41 untrained women aged 35-50 years of age with high blood pressure of around 140/90 mmHg. (Read: 10 ways hypertension or High BP affects your body)

‘As well as the impressive effects on blood pressure and body composition, we also saw a drop in cholesterol and a big improvement in physical fitness as a result of the 15 weeks of football training,’ said Peter Krustrup, professor at University of Exeter in Britain. The study appeared in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. (Read: Indians suffering from hypertension set to increase)

What are home remedies to tackle high blood pressure?

Several herbs have been used in traditional medicine to treat high blood pressure and here we present a few such remedies.

Garlic

Garlic has been found useful in patients whose blood pressure is mildly elevated. It is believed that allicin in garlic increases the production of nitric oxide and this helps to relax the muscles of the arteries, reducing both the diastolic as well as the systolic blood pressure. To get the entire benefits of garlic, it is recommended that you peel and lightly crush the fresh garlic and consume it raw. However, garlic also has the property of thinning blood and this means the clotting ability of blood is reduced; so it is best to use garlic supplements only after you consult your doctor.

Karpuravalli

Coleus forskohlii is the Karpuravalli plant that is grown in many home gardens in South India. In research studies, it has been found to relax the smooth muscles of the arteries and this helps to lower blood pressure. It is also said to make the heartbeat stronger and slow down the pulse. Certain studies have evaluated the action of Karpuravalli tablets and chewable pills and found it helps reduce blood pressure in the elderly.

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With inputs from IANS

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Published : June 21, 2014 11:36 am

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