Physical Activity A Few Times A Week Lowers The Risk Of Heart Disease In Women

Much of our physical and cognitive health depends on regular exercise.

New findings published in the journal Circulation show that middle-aged women who are physically active a few times a week significantly lower their risk of stroke, heart disease and blood clots with a little cycling, walking or gardening.

"Inactive middle-aged women should try to do some activity regularly," said Miranda Armstrong, M.Phil., Ph.D, the study's lead author and a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, in a news release. "However, to prevent heart disease, stroke and blood clots, our results suggest that women don't need to do very frequent activity as this seems to provide little additional benefit above that from moderately frequent activity."

Close to 1.1 million women in the United Kingdom participated in the study from the Million Women study in 1996-2001. The average age of the study participants when they joined the study was 56.

During the study, researchers had the women perform a series of physical activities two to three times per week. All were required to report their level of physical activity at the beginning of the study and then three years later.

It showed that they were about 20 percent less likely to develop heart disease, blood clots or strokes when compared to participants who reported little exercise or sedentary lifestyles.

However, the study also showed that working out more did not reduce the risk further.

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