Fitness crucial for healthy blood pressure

Most people are aware that keeping fit can benefit the heart, keep extra pounds at bay, and strengthen our muscles. New research is discovering further health benefits all the time.

Recently, age-related rises in blood pressure were put under the microscope. Now personally speaking, I've always tended to have blood pressure below the average (causing occasional dizziness when I stand up), but for many of us, especially men, blood pressure tends to rise with age independently of any weight gain.

Men who are largely sedentary often develop the early signs of high blood pressure in their mid-40s, but the blood pressure of men with strong cardio-fitness doesn't become high till their mid-50s on average.

Normal resting blood pressure is defined as 100 to 140 mmHg systolic (maximum pressure) and 60 to 90 mmHg diastolic (minimum pressure). High blood pressure, or hypertension, is above 140 mmHg systolic and 90 diastolic mmHg.

How I lost 20 points from my blood pressure and ate loads of cake

...and also lost a stone over two years by eating more, not less.

View across Ullswater, Lake District

It all started about two years ago. I won't say three years ago as that was when I went for my NHS Health Check. I ignored the results, which said I was overweight and that my blood pressure was starting to get high. And I ignored the offer of a visit to the doctor to discuss them. I still don't know what the blood test found. If it was serious I'm sure the doctor would have called me.

It may have started about six years ago when I started going on snorkelling expeditions with my  teenaged children in our summer holidays - and began to realise I really wasn't fit enough.