Abstract:

The objective of this systematic review was to explore ways of using diet and regular exercise as a means of reducing of reducing high blood pressure levels the world over. High blood pressure is fundamentally associated with high morbidity, mortality rates, and disability. Generally, lifestyle modifications such as exercise and a healthy diet have been seen to lower blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive. A search of the literature was conducted on the Medline database to identify articles related to the research question. We also obtained the primary studies from the reference list of the retrieved review articles. The search was performed using the following key terms combination; hypertension, diet, and exercise, regular exercise, exercise alone, and lowering high blood pressure. For this project, the Medline database was searched under EBSCO host on 29^th of April 2013, and there was no restriction on the years covered by the search. A total of eight articles were found to be relevant. Of all these articles reviewed, three addressed the issue of diet, and the other five addressed the issue of exercise as an intervention. Lifestyle modifications using exercise and diet was found to have a great effect in reducing blood pressure in hypertensive patients and normotensive in all the reviewed articles. There is evidence that diet and exercise have a substantial effect in reducing blood pressure in hypertensive patients and the normotensive in all the reviewed articles.

Keywords: Diet and Exercise, Exercise alone, Hypertension, Lowering High Blood Pressure.

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