New Delhi: Women who exercise vigorously are at significantly lower risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other causes, reveals a new study.
The study, presented at EuroEcho 2019, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), examined exercise capacity and heart function during exercise in women and their links with survival.
The study included over 4,000 adult women referred for treadmill exercise echocardiography because of known or suspected coronary artery disease.
“Exercise as much as you can. Fitness protects against death from any cause,” said study author Jesus Peteiro from University Hospital A Coruna in Spain. For the findings, participants walked or ran on a treadmill, gradually increasing the intensity, and continuing until exhaustion. Images of the heart were generated during the test. Fitness was defined as a maximal workload of 10 metabolic equivalents (METs), which is equal to walking fast up four flights of stairs or very fast up three flights, without stopping.
Women who achieved 10 METs or more (good exercise capacity) were compared to those achieving less than 10 METs (poor exercise capacity). During a median follow-up of 4.6 years there were 345 cardiovascular deaths, 164 cancer deaths, and 203 deaths from other causes. After adjusting for factors that could influence the relationship, METs were significantly associated with lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other causes.
The annual rate of death from cardiovascular disease was nearly four times higher in women with poor, compared to good, exercise capacity (2.2 per cent versus 0.6 per cent). Annual cancer deaths were doubled in patients with poor, compared to good, exercise capacity (0.9 per cent versus 0.4 per cent). The annual rate of death from other causes was more than four times higher in those with poor, compared to good, exercise capacity (1.4 per cent vs 0.3 per cent). “Good exercise capacity predicted lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other causes,” Peteiro said.
Comments are closed.