Effects of a single bout of low-intensity isometric or moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on postexercise hypotension in adults of African and south-Asian descent: a randomized controlled crossover trial.
Marina Bersaoui, Se-Sergio Baldew, Karla Goessler and 6 others
PMID 42639405WHAT IT FOUND
The main 8-hour daytime blood pressure reading did not reach significance after either exercise type in either ethnic group.
The 30-minute office drop after a walk is real but brief; it does not prove sustained BP control. Isometric handgrip showed no benefit.
Key findings
01The primary outcome — mean daytime ambulatory blood pressure over the first 8 hours — did not reach statistical significance in any group. In the African group, aerobic exercise produced a −4.08 mmHg systolic and −3.07 mmHg diastolic change (both p = 0.08); in the Asian group, neither exercise type produced a daytime reduction.
02A single bout of isometric handgrip exercise produced no reduction in office or ambulatory blood pressure at any time point in either ethnic group, and in the African group it was associated with a significant increase in nighttime systolic BP of +4.74 mmHg (p = 0.03).
03Aerobic exercise did lower office blood pressure at 30 minutes in both groups (African systolic −9.03 mmHg, p < 0.001; Asian systolic −7.40 mmHg, p < 0.01), but this is a secondary, very short-window measure and does not carry over to the 8-hour daytime reading.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The primary outcome did not reach statistical significance in any group, so the clinically meaningful reductions in the African group (p = 0.08) are trends, not confirmed effects. Most participants were on antihypertensive medication (up to two drugs), which may blunt the exercise-induced BP drop and makes it hard to generalise to untreated patients. Ethnicity was assigned by grandparental self-report, not genetic testing, so the 'African' and 'South-Asian' groups may include mixed ancestry. Sleep was recorded by diary, not objectively measured, so the nighttime BP finding (especially the isometric-related increase) is less certain. With 57 participants split into two ethnic groups, there was no power for sex, medication, or BP-category subgroup analyses. Participants and assessors were not blinded to the intervention, which is inherent to exercise trials but means the 30-minute office BP reading could be influenced by expectation. Single site in Suriname; the population is specific and the findings may not generalise to other African or South-Asian populations.
Declared interests
Funded by the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at KU Leuven, the Department of Cardiology of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo, and the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Anton de Kom University of Suriname. The authors state the funding sources had no role in study design, analysis, or interpretation. No industry or device manufacturer involvement is declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 30-minute office blood pressure drop after aerobic exercise (−9 mmHg in Africans, −7 mmHg in Asians) as evidence that a single walk controls blood pressure for the day. The primary outcome, the 8-hour daytime ambulatory reading, did not reach significance in either group (p = 0.08 in the African group, no effect in the Asian group). The 30-minute number is a secondary, very short-window measure and does not carry over to sustained BP control. Separately, do not dismiss the isometric handgrip finding as harmless: in the African group it was associated with a significant rise in nighttime systolic BP (+4.74 mmHg, p = 0.03), a finding the authors flag as needing further investigation.