The exercise regularly is known to reduce the risk of death, in particular heart problems. But scientists have discovered that this risk reduction can differ between the sexes, some people collecting greater advantages in less training time.
So who must exercise more to reduce their risk of death: women or men?
It turns out that women can collect these advantages of survival more easily than men. It is according to a major study published in 2024 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologywhich included data of more than 412,000 American adults aged 27 to 61, 55% of whom were women.
“The beauty of this study learns that women can get more of every minute of moderate to vigorous activity than men”, the co-driven author of the study Dr Martha GulatiThe director of preventive cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute in Cedars-Sinai, said in a statement. “It is an incentive notion that we hope that women will take to heart.”
The researchers collected the physical activity data of the participants via the National Survey of Health Registration (NHIS), the most important and longest health survey in the United States. The study examined the data collected between 1997 and 2017.
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The survey itself included questions about the types of exercises that people have carried out and at what frequencies, durations and intensities. It also included the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of participants and medical conditions. The study excluded people who had certain health problems at the start of the study period, as coronary or cancer.
Researchers also examined the National death index – A national database of death files – for the deaths of any cause, as well as deaths linked to cardiovascular. The data of the survey participants are linked to this death data of deathSo that the researchers were then able to connect their participants to the NHIS participants to the mortality data until the end of 2019. Overall, 39,935 participants died within the study time, including 11,670 deaths related to cardiovascular, such as those of heart disease, heart attacks and blows.
Approximately 32% of women and 43% of men questioned said they were engaged in Aerobic exerciseExercise for at least 150 minutes per week. Compared to the inactive individuals of the same sex, women who regularly exercised had up to a risk of death up to 24% lower of any cause. However, for men who exercised regularly, reducing the risk of mortality reached only 15%.
Women have also acquired these advantages of survival much faster than men, the study revealed. In men, the highest reduction in the risk of death has been observed at around 300 minutes of moderate physical activity (MVPA) per week. This came with a reduction of 18% of the mortality in all causes. Women have seen an equal advantage in less than half of this time, about 140 minutes from MVPA per week.
Women who have formed more than that every week have seen a greater advantage until they have also reached a summit about 300 minutes from weekly MVPA.
This trend was really kept in all exercise periods, found that researchers have noted, women constantly seeing “proportionally greater advantages” for any amount of exercise than men.
About 20% of women and 28% of men declared that they were engaged in two or more sessions of strength training, such as weight lifting, each week. Overall, however, women declared on average about 0.85 sessions per week, while men reached an average of 1.25 sessions per week.
On average, women who were trained at least twice a week had a lower risk of mortality by 19% than women who trained less often or not at all. Men, on average, experienced an 11% lower risk compared to inactive men.
These advantages were even greater in terms of cardiovascular health specifically.
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Compared to inactive individuals, women who carried out a aerobic physical activity had a risk of cardiovascular mortality of 36% lower, while for active men, this risk reduction was around 14%. The strengthening of muscles has produced similar results, with a reduction in cardiovascular risk of 30% for women and 11% for men, compared to the basic line.
“What surprised us most is the fact that women who strengthen muscles have had a reduction in their cardiovascular mortality by 30%” “” Gulati said to NPR. “We don't have many things that reduce mortality this way,” she added.
The study had certain limits, in particular that the exercise data of people were self -deprecated, so it relied on the participants by precisely reporting their activity levels. The study also followed only the leisure exercise, which means that it did not count the exercise completed during household tasks or in the context of a job, which may also have contributed to the results. In addition, the study did not take into account potentially unpublished health problems in certain participants, or changes in the trends in people's exercise over time.
That said, the results echo the similar results of a 2011 meta-analysis published in the journal Traffic. This review of 33 studies concluded that there was a stronger link between exercise and the risk of lower death in women than men.
Researchers behind the 2024 study hope that their results could help motivate more women to exercise, be it traditional “cardio“or muscle strengthening diets, including Body weight exercises or lift weights.
“I hope that this pioneering research will motivate women who are not currently engaged in regular physical activity to understand that they are able to attract an enormous advantage for each increase in the regular exercise that they are able to invest in their longer -term health”. Dr Christine AlbertPresident of the Cardiology Department of the Smidt Heart Institute which was not involved in the study, said in the press release.
This article is for information only and is not supposed to offer medical or physical condition advice.
