Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.

During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead 

Why Listen?

• Get practical tips and science-backed advice you can apply immediately.
• Learn from real-world examples and medical expertise.
• Gain daily challenges to help you stay engaged and track progress.
• Take charge of your heart health in a simple, effective, and engaging way.

Transcript

Hi and welcome back. Today we're talking about movement. It's not a lifestyle choice. This is a true physiological intervention. Exercise is a magic bullet when it comes to heart health and in fact general health can lower your blood pressure, improve heart function and literally change the way your arteries behave. Just 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a day can lower your systolic blood pressure by four to nine millimeters of mercury and that's pretty comparable to our modern blood pressure tablets. 

Now it's complex the way that exercise works but we do know that it probably has multiple ways of working from improving the elasticity of the blood vessels to lowering resting heart rate and reducing the resistance within the arteries out in the tissues. It literally makes it easier for your heart to push blood around the body during the times that you're resting and relaxing. Turns out that strength training is also pretty important. That improves vascular function, metabolic health and helps preserve lean muscle mass. 

This is a really important term so lock that one away, lean muscle mass. You don't want to lose that as you're getting older. And we know that resistance exercise or strength training is a great way to do that. Don't overlook balance and flexibility. These are important particularly for functional capacity but think of exercise as just a wonderful way to bring multiple positives to your best health journey. Even things like improving sleep and enhancing mood and reducing stress hormones. 

And for those who watch what they eat and exercise it can help with weight management as well. So what do we want to do? We want to find a way for exercise to be a regular part of your daily activities. Whether it's walking, cycling, swimming, whatever it is you've got to enjoy it otherwise you won't do it. But we do know if you can do it regularly it'll make a huge difference to your health in the long term. So think of movement as your medicine on a daily basis. Every step, every stretch, every lift, they're going to be helpful. 

So figure out a way to make that work. If you've got this far through the blood pressure challenge you're probably someone who can discipline yourself enough to get some exercise regularly. Tomorrow we're talking about salt, so I look forward to joining you there. Until then I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.

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Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.

• 94% of Australians have at least One Risk Factor for heart disease.
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