We have known for a long time that exercise is effective in lowering blood pressure. But how does it stack up against antihypertensive medication?

On this episode, Dr. John Ioannidis joins BJSM’s Daniel Friedman (T: @ddfriedman) to discuss his recently published BJSM meta-analysis that made headlines around the world https://bit.ly/2EYW66J

Dr Ioannidis is recognised as one the most influential scientists alive today. A Professor of Medicine and of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Professor of Statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences, Dr Ioannidis has authored close to 1,000 academic papers and served on the editorial boards of 30 of the world's top journals. He is best known for his legendary 2005 PLOS medicine paper “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False”, which has been viewed over 2.5 million times. https://profiles.stanford.edu/john-ioannidis

In this 15 minute conversation, Dr Ioannidis discusses:

· The findings of his latest BJSM meta-analysis

· How trials that examine exercise’s effects on blood pressure can be made more useful

· How exercise can become part of routine hypertension management

· What needs fixing in the world of evidence-based medicine

Further reading:

Naci H, Salcher-Konrad M, Dias S, et al How does exercise treatment compare with antihypertensive medications? A network meta-analysis of 391 randomised controlled trials assessing exercise and medication effects on systolic blood pressure Br J Sports Med Published Online First: 18 December 2018. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099921

Naci H, Ioannidis JP. Comparative effectiveness of exercise and drug interventions on mortality outcomes: metaepidemiological study. Bmj. 2013 Oct 1;347:f5577.

Ioannidis JP. Why most clinical research is not useful. PLoS medicine. 2016 Jun 21;13(6):e1002049.