Study Shows Exercise Still Important to Heart Health
Posted on: Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 09:10 CDT
In the ongoing debate over how much a person’s weight determined their risk of heart disease, it seems that “weight still matters,” says Dr. Martha Gulati, a heart specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The Women’s Health Study was conducted by Harvard-affiliated researchers found that Of the 948 of the 38,987 women studied developed coronary heart disease during a mean of 10.9 years.
All women involved were over the age of 45, and were reportedly free of coronary heart disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease when they entered the study in 1992.
Researchers determined women’s weight by body mass index. A BMI between 25 and 29 is considered overweight, and 30 or higher is considered overweight.
Researchers questioned participants about the average time they spent during the past year in 8 groups of recreational activities: walking and hiking; jogging; running; bicycling; aerobic exercise, aerobic dance and exercise; swimming; tennis, squash, and racquetball; and lower-intensity exercise.
They found that as BMI increased, the risk of CHD did as well. Also, increases in walking time reduced the risk of CHD, as did lower BMI levels.
The risk for developing heart disease was 54 percent higher in overweight active women and 87 percent higher in obese active women than that of normal weight active women.
“Recent studies of the joint association of BMI and physical activity on CVD mortality and incidence are consistent with our findings,” researchers wrote.
“Joint studies have shown that fitness significantly reduced CVD mortality regardless of BMI level, suggesting that physical fitness had a greater impact than BMI.”
Dr. Amy Weinstein of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said that although physical activity alone will not eliminate risk of coronary heart disease, the results were supportive that being fit is a large factor.
"It is reassuring to see that physical activity really does make an impact," said Weinstein, the study’s lead author.
Dr. Laura Concannon, who specializes in treating overweight patients at Chicago's Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, said that the study didn’t turn up any drastically new ideas, but its supporting message was important.’
"Anything that can motivate the public is useful because heart disease is becoming a bigger and bigger problem as levels of obesity increase," Concannon said.
The study by Harvard-affiliated researchers appeared in Monday's (April 28, 2008) Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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