Playing football reduces high blood pressure in women

Playing football could help lower blood pressure in women aged 35 to 50, according to a new study.

Women within this age group with mild high blood pressure can achieve a significant reduction in blood pressure and body fat percentage through playing recreational football for 15 weeks, researchers found.

The study was conducted in a collaboration between researchers across four countries, including Professor Peter Krustrup of the University of Exeter.

The study showed that 35-50-year-old untrained women with mild high blood pressure achieve a significant improvement in physical fitness and a considerable reduction in blood pressure and body fat percentage after 1 hour football training sessions three times a week for 15 weeks.
 

"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 project leader Magni Mohr.

"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 the football," Mohr said.

"Our previous studies have shown that 16 weeks of football training reduces blood pressure in 20-45-year-old women with normal blood pressure, but this is the first study that has looked at the effects of recreational football in women with high blood pressure," said Krustrup.

"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 Krustrup.

"Recreational football is an effective therapy for poor fitness and high blood pressure in 35-50-year-old women," he said.

The research was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science.