Demonstration that regular exercise lowers blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, and mechanistic insight into the physiologic basis for such action.
By the 1980s, physical activity was being recommended for the prevention of cardiovascular disease — but the science to back it up was largely epidemiological. How much exercise was needed? What was the physiological mechanism? And did it matter whether people exercised every day or just a few times a week?
Baker Institute researchers set out to answer these questions with a series of controlled clinical trials. They recruited healthy participants and compared cardiovascular risk outcomes across different levels of activity — from casual exercise three times a week to daily exercise — using a sophisticated range of measurements including the sympathetic nervous system activity technique developed at the Institute.
Their findings were both reassuring and practically useful. Daily exercise delivered the best outcomes overall, but the gap between casual and daily exercise was smaller than expected. Even exercising three times a week significantly lowered cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure. The benefits of moderate regular exercise were also established for specific groups — people living with hypertension, heart failure and diabetes — confirming its value as a non-pharmacological treatment for these conditions.
This body of work, built over several decades, has informed physical activity guidelines in Australia and internationally, and continues to support better management and quality of life for people living with chronic disease.
