EMBRACE EXERCISE and general fitness, and you will likely experience improvements in heart health and quality of life. Also, we have the known beneficial effects on weight control, lipids, blood pressure, and more. Today I want to share with you a new study that gives some clues about your volume of exercise and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Historical studies have often been suboptimal, relying on people’s memories and self-reports about their exercise. In this context, we have an imperfect understanding of whether too much exercise harms our heart. We don’t have a good sense of whether physical activity leads to a comparable heart health improvement for men and women.
Enter Dr. Terence Dwyer of the University of Oxford (England) and his colleagues. They turned to the United Kingdom Biobank, a repository of health and lifestyle information about more than half a million men and women in the UK.
The data included blood, urine, and saliva samples obtained for medical and genetic testing. Participants (without heart disease) completed comprehensive questionnaires about their lifestyles. They also wore activity trackers for a week to assess their volume of movement.
The study authors collected data from hospitals and death records, tracking who developed heart disease in the years after joining the study. The scientists then cross-checked their diagnoses against their activity levels.
The researchers’ conclusions are clear: For heart health, the more you exercise, the better off you are. Active people had a much lower chance of developing heart disease compared to more sedentary individuals.
Virtually any amount of physical activity appeared associated with better cardiovascular health. Those who did a few minutes of daily jogging had better outcomes. Walk for hours, and voila! Improved health.
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