Teens need vigorous exercise to cut heart risk later in life

Turns out, teenagers who engage in high-intensity exercise have lower blood pressure which ultimately may lead to a lower risk of developing heart diseases later in life.

The study by researchers at the Children's Health & Exercise Research Centre, University of Exeter, conducted an experiment on healthy teenage males (12-15 years old), who underwent testing on four separate occasions across three weeks.

In the first visit, teenage participants performed an exercise test to calculate the exercise intensities reflective of vigorous and moderate intensity exercise.

In the hours following exercise, blood pressure decreases below resting values. This is known as post-exercise hypotension. These results suggest that in teenagers, eight bouts of one minute's worth of running at a vigorous intensity (i.e. running close to the maximum heart rate) caused post-exercise hypotension lasting up to an hour.

However, the same result was not observed after running at moderate intensity (i.e. jogging), where blood pressure was restored just twenty minutes after exercise.

These findings indicate that exercise intensity alters other mechanisms of adjustments in blood pressure differently, one-hour following the completion of the exercise in healthy teenagers.

The fall in blood pressure of healthy teenagers may have a long-term clinical importance if translated to those with high blood pressure, as previously reported in adults. Similarly, the blood pressure reducing effects of the exercise could lead to better blood pressure control, particularly when young people face stressful situations.

This research appeared in the journal Experimental Physiology.