If exercising for five more minutes a day could lower your blood pressure, would you find a way to work a little more physical activity into your regular routine? As it turns out, it’s worth the time.

A recent study​ published by the American Heart Association (AHA) shows that it doesn’t necessarily take drastic measures to help improve your health. Getting your heart rate up for just a few extra minutes can help lower your blood pressure, which in turn lowers your risk of other cardiovascular problems.

Here, Meron Hirpa Kassa, MD, an internal medicine specialist with The Christ Hospital Physicians-Primary Care. Dr. Kassa has specialized experience in public health and an interest in health-equity and community-based ​​research and education. She shares insights on how everybody can get enough exercise to impact their heart. She also explains why it’s important to partner with a primary care provider to control your blood pressure.

“People in the United States lead a very sedentary lifestyle for many reasons. Desk jobs, more screen time, driving or riding in cars—it’s all led to a rise in conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol,” she says. “We know that cardiovascular exercise offers benefits in combatting these conditions. This is the first study to show that it only takes a few minutes to see that impact.”

What the study says

According to the study, your blood pressure starts to drop when you add as little as five minutes of exercise, including fast or slow walking, to your day. But the benefit gets even bigger when you extend your workout by 10 to 20 minutes. With that much exercise time, your systolic blood pressure (the pressure in your arteries when your heart pumps) drops by two points. And your diastolic blood pressure (the pressure when your heart rests between beats) drops by one point.

The reductions may be small, but they’re important, Dr. Kassa says. The decreases are enough to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, several types of eye disease and complications from diabetes and high cholesterol. As a result, your quality of life improves, and you’re more likely to live longer.

An exercise plan you can stick to

Dr. Kassa says the good news with this study is that it’s easier than you probably think to weave effective exercise into your regular routine. According to current AHA recommendations, you should try to get 30 to 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every day. But dedicating that much time to working out can be difficult, especially if you start from scratch.

“Previous studies that show the benefits of exercise focus on scripted exercise programs that are difficult to stick with consistently,” she says. “What’s cool about this study is that it focuses on movement behaviors in a person’s actual life, like sleeping, sedentary behavior, standing, slow walking, fast walking, and exercise -like activities such as cycling. It’s a very realistic study that looks at how each of these things impacts our blood pressure.”

Small changes for a big impact

Dr. Kassa says she encourages every patient who wants to become more active to start with five minutes of exercise and slowly add to it. Even that small step can transform your health.

“We’re so conditioned to be sedentary. But becoming more active is easy if we switch our minds to make little changes in our lifestyle,” she says. “I think most of us can carve out five minutes for more movement no matter how busy we are.”

You don’t need expensive equipment or a gym membership to increase your activity level. YouTube offers a wide variety of free videos to help you get more cardiovascular exercise, she says. To add more movement to your day, she also recommends:

• Biking

• Choosing a parking spot at the far end of the lot

• Going for a walk over your lunch break

• Taking the stairs

To experience any cardiovascular benefit, you’ll need to work hard enough so that your breathing is heavy and it’s harder to talk, Dr. Kassa says. The key to increasing your activity level and lowering your blood pressure is making the new behaviors part of your daily routine.

“I tell all of my patients that once they build the habit and have a routine, they’ll be more likely to stick with it long term,” she says.

The importance of a primary care provider

High blood pressure affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. It plays a role in nearly 686,000 deaths in the United States every year. Healthcare providers often call it “the silent killer.” Having high blood pressure increases every patient’s risk of heart attack and stroke. But not all patients experience symptoms like blurry vision, chest pain, headaches, shortness of breath or swelling in the legs.

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, nearly half of all American adults have high blood pressure, but only 20 percent have their condition under control. That’s why it’s important to partner with a primary care provider or a specialist if the condition warrants it, Dr. Kassa says.

“Sometimes high blood pressure causes symptoms, sometimes not. Other times, the signs are so mild that people brush it off,” she says. “So, unless you go to your primary care provider for your yearly checkups, you could be walking around with really high blood pressure and not know it. It can cause damage over time because your heart has to work harder to pump blood through your body.”

If you have high blood pressure, your primary care provider may suggest lifestyle changes like exercising more or eating a healthier diet. They can also prescribe medication if you need it. Ultimately, controlling your blood pressure is much easier when you work closely with your primary care provider.

“Your primary care provider can help you get your high blood pressure under control within a matter of weeks or months,” she says. “It’s a very treatable disease.”