Changes of blood pressure and lipid pattern during a physical training course in hypertensive subjects

Among 77 hypertensive subjects with a previous predominantly sedentary way of life we followed the changes of several cardiovascular and biochemical parameters during a 5-week physical training course. A highly significant drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) was observed in 58 subjects (75%, p less than 0.001). There was a strong negative correlation between initial uricaemia and the diastolic BP decrease (r = -0.382; p less than 0.001). The decrease of systolic as well as diastolic BP correlated positively with the increase of maximum oxygen uptake per kilogram (VO2max/kg) during the intervention (for systolic BP: r = 0.282, p less than 0.05; for diastolic BP: r = 0.286, p less than 0.05). Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), uricaemia levels and body mass index (BMI) decreased (p less than 0.01 for uricaemia; p less than 0.001 for the rest), whereas the HDL-C/TC ratio increased significantly (p less than 0.001). These positive changes disappeared already 3-7 months after the intervention except for BMI, TG and uricemia, where the lower levels persisted. Thus, the 5-week intensive physical training had a favourable but short-time effect on BP and lipid pattern in the majority of hypertensives.