Women can Play Football to Reduce Blood Pressure

Highlights

• Football Fitness can be an effective and broad-spectrum medicine for women with high blood pressure.
• Football has shown to be equally effective as medicines for controlling blood pressure.
• The study shows that benefits of physical activity outweighs traditional pharmacological treatment in long-term management of a number of lifestyle diseases.

The Danish concept Football Fitness has proven to be just as effective as tablets for countering high blood pressure. Women participating in the project have also benefited from improved physical fitness, decreased body fat percentage and stronger bones.

Professor Peter Krustrup of the University of Southern Denmark calls this "a 4-0 health victory for Football Fitness, with the ball hitting every corner of the net".

Researchers demonstrated the long-term effect of Football Fitness among female patients.

"Football Fitness training comprises high-pulse training, stamina training and strength training, which explains why the women derived such significant and broad-spectrum effects on physical fitness and health by playing football for a year. What is more, they enjoyed the training and the attendance levels were high," says Professor Krustrup.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which causes one in four deaths in Denmark.

Football for Lifestyle Diseases

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In a randomized trial, 31 Faroese women aged 35-50 with mildly high blood pressure were recruited.

Among them, 19 women underwent 1 hour of football training 2/3 times a week over 1 year period, corresponding to an average of 128 sessions.

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Those women who engaged in football training derived significant positive effects on blood pressure, body fat mass, triglyceride, bone mass and interval fitness, in comparison with the inactive control group.

This proved to be an effective broad-spectrum medicine, with positive effects on blood pressure, body fat percentage, bone density and physical fitness.

"Our study shows that untrained women with high blood pressure benefit greatly from Football Fitness in respect of blood pressure, body fat percentage, bone density and physical fitness. This form of football can rightly be described as effective and broad-spectrum medicine for women with high blood pressure," says Professor Krustrup.

Conclusion

The results of the project show that football can be used for effective prevention and treatment of a number of lifestyle diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

The results also support the growing evidence of benefits of physical activity over traditional pharmacological treatment for a more broad-spectrum reduction in risk factors for cardiovascular disease than .

The study, conducted in close collaboration with project leader Dr Magni Mohr, Centre of Health Sciences at the University of the Faroe Islands and researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), is published in the acclaimed Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

Bent Clausen, vice chairman of the Danish Football Association (DBU), and Kim Høgh, CEO of the Danish Heart Foundation, both see great prospects for Football Fitness in relation to preventing and treating lifestyle diseases, both nationally and internationally.

"Football Fitness, currently practised at 275 Danish football clubs, was conceived as part of the "Exercise for life" vision in a close collaboration between the Danish FA, The Danish Sports Confederation and DGI, which aims to create more active Danes. Nationally, the goal is for 10,000 more Danes to be taking part in Football Fitness in three years. But the ambitions do not stop there. Pilot projects in the Faroe Islands, Norway, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Brazil have produced such positive results that there are realistic expectations that the concept will gain international prominence, and that is fantastic," says Bent Clausen.

Reference

1. Peter Krustrup et al. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports; (2017)

Source-Medindia