Walking as effective as vigorous exercise at preventing CHD in women

Walking as effective as vigorous exercise at preventing CHD in women WESTPORT, Aug 26 (Reuters Health) - Brisk walking can lower a woman's risk of a coronary event as effectively as more vigorous exercise, such as jogging, biking or swimming, according to a report in the August 26th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings support current federal guidelines recommending 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week, according to the lead author, Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "The study suggests that one third of heart attacks in women can be prevented by walking vigorously," she told Reuters Health in an interview. Dr. Manson and her colleagues based the findings on data from the Nurses' Health Study, using information about on the women's self-reports of physical activity collected at several points from 1980 to 1992. The researchers found that both brisk walking and vigorous exercise resulted in a similar reduction in the incidence of coronary heart disease, although vigorous exercise required less time. Women who walked 3 or more hours a week at a pace of at least 3 miles per hour and women who exercised vigorously for 1.5 hours each week reduced the risk of nonfatal MI or cardiovascular death by 30% to 40%, according to the report. Dr. Manson's team also found that sedentary women who began exercising during the study period were able to reduce their coronary risk by 15% to 29% compared with those who remained inactive. While the evidence that physical activity can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease has been "mounting," according to Dr. Manson, few of the studies on the subject have included women. She noted in the interview that, in this case, "there's no reason to believe that [these findings] wouldn't apply to men." She encouraged physicians to ask patients about physical activity and to prescribe an exercise routine for sedentary patients. "It's probably at least as important as other prescriptions," she believes. "Physical activity is as close to a magic bullet as we get," Dr. Manson said. Dr. Gerald Fletcher, a national spokesperson for the American Heart Association and professor of medicine at Mayo Medical School in Jacksonville, Florida, said in a statement: "Brisk walking is an excellent form of exercise for both women and men, especially as they age and their risk for knee and other injuries increases." "These findings are right in line with the exercise recommendations of the American Heart Association, which are at least 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise three to six days a week," he added.