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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Being overweight or obese puts people at higher risk for heart disease. So does lack of physical activity.
But getting more active can help mitigate the risk for people who are overweight. According to researchers who followed nearly 39,000 women taking part in the long-running Womens Health Study, overweight or obese women who exercised more had lower heart disease risks than overweight or obese women who were sedentary.
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The lowest heart risks in the study were seen among normal weight women who exercised regularly.
The authors believe the beneficial effects seen in the overweight and obese come from the ability of exercise to improve blood vessel function and lower the incidence of blood clots, both of which are compromised with increasing weight. While any amount of exercise is a good thing, however, they dont believe exercise alone is what it will take to really impact heart disease risks among the overweight and obese.
Even high quantities of physical activity are unlikely to fully reverse the risk of coronary heart disease in overweight and obese women without concurrent weight loss, study authors were quoted as saying. Regardless of body weight, these data highlight the importance of counseling all women to participate in increasing amounts of regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
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SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168:884-890
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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