Dr. Leandro Brito, a postdoc at the Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, presented his findings regarding relationships between evening exercise and hypertension at the Virtual Press Conference for the American Physiology Summit on April 18th. The press conference was intended to demonstrate a preview of findings which will later be shared during the 2023 American Physiology Summit on April 20-23 in Long Beach, California.
The randomized clinical trial (a study where participants are separated randomly into distinct groups in order to compare different treatments or interventions) was conducted to determine if aerobic training in the evening is more beneficial in lowering blood pressure than aerobic training in the morning. To assess this, twenty-three hypertensive individuals receiving high blood pressure medication were selected and randomly assorted into evening and morning aerobic training groups. The two groups completed the same aerobic training for 10 weeks.
Ultimately, while both training groups demonstrated a decrease in diastolic blood pressure, only the evening aerobic training group demonstrated a decrease in systolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure is the top number on a blood pressure reading and refers to the pressure the heart produces while pumping out blood. Diastolic blood pressure is the bottom number on a blood pressure reading and refers to the pressure inside the arteries while the heart is resting in between heartbeats.
The study was completed in 2021 during Dr. Brito’s postdoc at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Help us in congratulating him on this accomplishment!
