Health Risks Drop in Active Women

A study of 73,029 women found that those who were most active had about a 40% lower risk of heart attacks and strokes than the least active, and even modest activity produced significant drops in risk.

“There are very limited data (about) women” on the value of exercise, said Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, the study’s director and co-director of women’s health at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “This study suggests exercise has comparable benefits in men and women.”

In a separate study, Dr. Charles B. Eaton of Brown University found that men who reported any leisure physical activity at all had a 21% lower risk of death from heart disease than did sedentary men.

The most vigorous exercisers had only a slightly greater advantage--a 29% lower risk than sedentary men--suggesting that “most of the benefit occurred with light activity, not even on a daily basis,” Eaton said.

Both studies were presented at the American Heart Assn.’s annual epidemiology meeting, which ended Saturday.

In a third study also reported at the meeting, researchers found that physical activity reduces the risk of heart attack in post-menopausal women by as much as 60%.

Manson said the studies “all have the same message”--physical activity cuts the risk in men and in women, and even modest amounts are enough to make a difference.