Thank you for the question and I am sure its a situation that many people face day-by-day. Our increasingly sedentary lives have a significant impact on our health including the risk of developing hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, obesity and heart disease.
EXERCISE can have a positive impact on your BP and certainly can help bring it down to a safe level. Indeed, there are some cases where people care able to COME OFF medication with exercise! In your case it maybe a combination of exercise together with dietary changes. Often our food has high levels of salt, which can help push up your blood pressure.
In terms of exercise, I would suggest starting with cardiovascular rather than resistance in the first instance as the latter can actually elevate blood pressure. Later, once you are finding the benefits from the initial aerobic activities, you can then phase is more strength training. I would suggest you consider going for a PRE-PARTICIPATION SCREENING, where you can have a thorough assessment and discuss your health goals before taking on exercise.
I hope this helps.
BW
Dr Dinesh
