(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 Women’s Health Study, overweight or obese women who
exercised more had lower heart disease risks than overweight or obese women who
were sedentary.
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 don’t 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.”
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168:884-890
