The Effect of Traditional Chinese Exercises on Blood Pressure in Patients with Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In the context of the increasing number of patients with hypertension, exercise intervention is an excellent alternative or adjunctive treatment for hypertension. Traditional Chinese exercises are excellent physical and mental exercise methods. Although some studies have reviewed the effects of Chinese traditional exercise on patients with hypertension, most of the reviews only involved a single category of traditional exercise. Furthermore, few studies have conducted in-depth analysis of the combined intervention methods of traditional Chinese exercise, and there are high heterogeneity. This study evaluates the current clinical evidence of Chinese traditional exercises in the treatment of essential hypertension. A total of 49 randomized controlled trials with 4207 hypertensive patients were selected according to the inclusion criteria by searching all relevant studies from the establishment of six electronic databases until September 10, 2022. Among them, 24 used tai chi and 25 used Qigong, including Yijinjing, Wuqinxi, Liuzijue, Baduanjin, and Guolin Qigong. This study divided four subgroups according to the type of intervention to explore the source of heterogeneity among studies and found that traditional Chinese exercises can assist or even may replace traditional treatments. The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with the use of antihypertensive drugs alone or in health education, the addition of Chinese traditional exercises showed significant effects in regulating the systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Although the results show that traditional Chinese exercise are effective, the clinical evidence will be affected by the low quality of most randomized controlled trials. More rigorously designed trials are needed in the future to further validate it.