By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

Most of the evidence relating the benefits of exercise for preventing heart disease has been obtained in men, and there has been some uncertainty as to whether just walking gives the same benefit as more vigorous exercise.

This report analyzed the data obtained in the Nurses’ Health Study, in which 72,488 nurses were asked about their exercise habits and were followed up for eight years. The results were clear: the more the women exercised, the lower the risk of heart disease. This was true even after allowing for the fact that the women who exercised more were also likely to have a generally healthier risk factor profile such as being less likely to smoke. The women who exercised the most (the equivalent of three hours a week of brisk walking or 1.5 hours of vigorous exercise such as running) was associated with a reduction of one third of the changes of having as heart attack or similar event. The walking pace was also important: Women who strolled at two miles an hour or less derived less benefit that the ones who walked at a brisk pace (three miles an hour or more). Women who started to exercise in middle life also showed a lower risk of heart disease.

Doctors’ Comments

This study provides the most convincing evidence to date that regular exercise such as brisk walking can result in a significant reduction in the chances of a woman getting heart disease. The benefits are related to the total energy expended, so that 1.5 hours a week of jogging or bicycling gives the same protection as three hours of brisk walking.

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