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For a healthy heart

Women who are otherwise healthy, but have low levels of physical activity and high levels of weight, generally have less favourable heart health than their leaner, more active counterparts, Boston-based researchers report in Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The important observations from our study are that even in healthy women both fitness and fatness are very important for heart health," Dr. Samia Mora from the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital told Reuters Health.

The message, therefore, for women who want to protect themselves from having a heart attack, the number one killer of women, "is to get out and walk, be active 30 minutes each day most days of the week, and lose those 10 lbs or more if you need to, if you want to protect yourself against heart attack and stroke," Mora said.ore than half of the U.S. population falls short of recommended levels of physical activity and 65 per cent are overweight or obese, with women outnumbering men.

Both increased body weight and a sedentary lifestyle are strong predictors of heart disease, as well as diabetes and death.

A high body weight was more strongly related to adverse cardiovascular biomarker levels than physical inactivity.

However, within body weight categories, physical activity was generally associated with more favourable cardiovascular biomarker levels than inactivity.

— REUTERS

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