Why Crossing Your Legs Can Be Bad For Your Blood Pressure
During the day, there are a lot of things that we do without even realizing the effect they have on our body, simple things like having bad posture or lifting heavy things with our back could have severe repercussions on our body. Another thing that you may not even have thought of is crossing your legs while sitting down. Something as simple as this can quickly increase your blood pressure and while it might be normal for some of us to think this is nothing but an old wives’ tale, scientists have more than enough data to prove that crossing our legs leads to an almost immediate spike in blood pressure levels.
If you still don’t believe us, ask your nurse next time she takes your blood pressure levels. If you have your legs crossed before getting the readings, the nurse will likely ask you to uncross your legs in order to get accurate readings.
The Way You Sit and Blood Pressure Readings
Several studies on this subject have been completed in recent times and one of them was able to show that crossing the legs at the knee resulted in high blood pressure levels. Keep in mind that crossing the legs at the ankles did not seem to affect the readings and while the effect seemed to go away after the legs were uncrossed, it is important to think about the long-term consequences of having our legs crossed. For example, people who work at a desk or counter need to remind themselves of the importance of having the legs fully extended while being at work as having our legs crossed for long periods of time can severely affect the flow of blood to our vital organs and have terrible consequences if this becomes a common behavior pattern.
In order to fully understand the results taken from this study, we must first understand the difference between systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure is the amount of force generated by the heart when pumping out blood to the different organs in the body. On the other hand, we have diastolic blood pressure, this is the amount of force generated by the heart in order to pump out blood through the arteries in between heart palpitations. Normal blood pressure is considered 120/80, this is to say, 120 for the systolic blood pressure and 80 for the diastolic blood pressure.
A study conducted in 1999 set out to discover the effects of crossing legs on blood pressure, this experiment was conducted as a random single-blind crossover study that looked to investigate the theoretical effects of crossing legs when it comes to increasing blood pressure. Despite the fact that people already knew that crossing legs at the knee resulted in a spike on blood pressure levels, there had been no experiments made in regards to proving that this was true. During the study, over 50 healthy volunteers struggling with high blood pressure were placed in a room and they were asked to cross their legs in several positions; the scientists then took readings on each patient while their feet were flat on the floor, crossed at their legs and crossed at their ankles, of all these three positions, the only one that showed a significant increase in blood pressure readings was sitting with the legs crossed at the knees. In fact, the study was able to prove that crossing legs at the knees resulted in an increase in blood pressure levels of 8.1 mmHg on average.
As you can see, those patients currently struggling with high blood pressure should consider keeping their legs uncrossed, whether it is at work or at home as the slight increase in blood pressure can put a lot of strain on the body, especially when done over an extended period of time.
Supporting Healthy Blood Pressure Levels
Remember that the fight against blood pressure needs to be fought on several ends and that having the help of PD120, a natural blood pressure supplement, can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels. Finally, it might also be a good idea to consider your living or working conditions and how they are affecting your blood pressure levels. Obviously, while it might not be that easy to work while standing up, especially to those patients suffering from joint paint, it might be a good idea to set your chair height to a position that is comfortable for you in order to avoid having to cross your legs. We understand how difficult it might be to make this change in the beginning, but once you consider the benefits of sitting down with your legs extended, this will really seem like a no-brainer.