Athletes Exhibit Half the Incidence of Hypertension in the General Population
Cardiovascular aging is greatly influenced by exercise and physical fitness, to the point at which one can point to physically active hunter-gatherer populations that exhibit very few of the common cardiovascular issues present in wealthier first world populations. Researchers here report on a study of cardiovascular aging in competitive athletic individuals, noting that they exhibit less than half of the risk of hypertension observed in the general population. This is one of many examples of the way in which athletes tend to be healthier than the average.
Master athlete is a term applied to individuals typically aged 35 years and older, who exercise and compete on a regular basis in organized sports competitions with similar-aged individuals. Master athletes have been reported to be significantly healthier than the general population in a number of health outcomes, including numerous chronic diseases such as asthma, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer (all types combined), depression, diabetes (type 1 diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes mellitus), hypercholesterolemia, hypothyroidism, osteoporosis, Parkinson's' disease, and peripheral arterial disease.
We assessed resting blood pressure (BP) in male and female World Masters Games (WMG) athletes. This was a cross-sectional, observational study which utilized an online survey to assess the blood pressure (BP) and other physiological parameters. A total of 2,793 participants were involved in this study. Significant differences were identified when comparing WMG athletes' resting BP results to the general Australian population with WMG athletes having a lower systolic BP and diastolic BP. Only 8.1% of the WMG athletes were found to be hypertensive compared to 17.2% in the general Australian population.