Just five minutes of exercise a day can lower blood pressure and help to stave off heart problems, research has found.

Adding short bursts of exercise to your daily routine – such as taking the stairs or cycling – can reduce readings.

Experts say that small tweaks to lifestyle, like swapping five minutes of watching TV for five minutes of running, is enough to significantly boost heart health.

The findings suggest that activities which raise the heart rate, like dancing, running or even cleaning rigorously, have the biggest benefits.

Researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sydney studied 14,761 people who wore activity trackers to analyse the relationship between daily movement and blood pressure.

Over the 24 hours, on average people spent around seven hours asleep, ten hours in sedentary behaviour such as sitting, three hours standing, one hour slow walking, one hour fast walking, and 16 minutes taking exercise that increased their heart rate such as running and cycling.

Just five minutes of exercise a day can lower blood pressure and help to stave off heart problems, research has found (File image)

Adding short bursts of exercise to your daily routine – such as taking the stairs or cycling – can reduce readings (File image)

An extra five minutes of exercise which raises the heart rate, such as stair climbing, running or cycling – in exchange for any of the other behaviours – was found to lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 0.68 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 0.54mmHg2.

Systolic is the top number in a blood pressure reading and represents pressure when the heart pushes blood out around the body. Diastolic is the bottom number and is the pressure when the heart rests between beats.

At a population level, a 2mmHg reduction in SBP and a 1mmHg reduction in DPB is equivalent to an approximately 10 per cent reduction in the risk of heart disease, the researchers said.

This could be achieved by reallocating 20-27 minutes from other behaviours to exercise for the top number, and 10-15 minutes for the bottom number, the study published in Circulation found.

For example, with systolic blood pressure, swapping 21 minutes of sedentary time, 22 minutes of standing or 26 minutes of slow walking for exercise such as cycling or jogging would have this effect.

For diastolic blood pressure, the benefits would arise from swapping 10 minutes of fast walking, 11 minutes of sedentary time or 13 minutes of sleeping for proper exercise.

High blood pressure is the leading cause of strokes and heart attacks in the UK, with around 14million adults are thought to have it including around five million without a diagnosis.

If left untreated, the heart may become enlarged over time due to the increased pressure, pumping less effectively and can lead to heart failure.

Lead author Dr Jo Blodgett, of UCL, said: ‘Our findings suggest that, for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.

‘The good news is that, whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure.

‘What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from climbing the stairs to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.

‘For those who don’t do a lot of exercise, walking did still have some positive benefits for blood pressure.

‘But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect.’