Exercise facts for men and women

Exercise is Good for Women

A large-scale, six-year study involving 39,372 American women over age 44 confirms that exercise reduces the risk of coronary heart disease in women.

The study found that the more energy women spent exercising, the lower their risk of developing heart disease, including heart attacks, regardless of other factors.

Among the approximately 23,000 women who did not engage in any vigorous activity, women who walked as little as one hour per week had about half the risk of more sedentary women of developing heart disease.

Intensity was less of a factor than the total amount of time spent walking.

Exercise is Good for Men.

Men who exercise have a reduced risk of dying from both cardiovascular disease and cancer.

And, according to a new report from researchers in Finland, being out of shape increases the risk of premature death as much as commonly known risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and smoking.

These findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on a 10-year study of nearly 1,300 men.

At the start of the study, none of the participants, whose average age was 52, had cardiovascular disease, lung disease or cancer.

Researchers found that those who performed well on a maximum oxygen uptake test and could exercise longer were more likely to be alive at the end of the study.

Conversely, men who performed poorly were three times more likely to die from any cause.