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Walk for your heart

Increased body weight and a sedentary lifestyle are strong predictors of heart disease

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, reports the 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," says Dr. Samia Mora from the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital .

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," Mora said.

Increased body weight and a sedentary lifestyle are strong predictors of heart disease.

Among 27,158 apparently healthy U.S. women, Mora's team found that lower levels of physical activity and higher levels of body weight were independently associated with adverse levels of nearly all of the 11 lipid and inflammatory biomarkers measured. For example, inactive overweight women had higher levels of potentially harmful C-reactive protein, a blood protein that signals ongoing inflammation, and higher levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lower levels of "good" HDL cholesterol. Compared with normal weight women, "women who were overweight or obese had 2 to 10 times increased levels of risk factors that increase their risk for heart attack and stroke," Mora reported. A high body weight was more strongly related to adverse cardiovascular biomarker levels than physical inactivity.

REUTERS

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