Women Who Walk 3 Hours a Week Cut Heart Disease Risk by a Third

Either three hours of brisk walking per week or half that time spent working up a sweat at jogging, aerobic dance or other vigorous exercise reduced the risk of heart disease 35% to 40% in a study of 72,488 women, according to Massachusetts researchers. The study also suggests it’s never too late to start: Women who were couch potatoes when the eight-year study began reduced their risk of heart trouble by about the same amount as those who were active from the start.

Most studies of exercise and the heart have looked at men; this analysis of questionnaires from women ages 40 to 65, reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, is the first large study to look at women and walking, according to the team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

*

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II