Women Need About Half as Much Exercise as Men for the Same Heart Benefits, Study Suggests
Researchers analyzed the activity and health records of 85,000 U.K. adults over roughly eight years
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When it comes to heart health, any exercise is good. But a new study, published Monday in Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggests women receive greater benefits than men for the same amount of physical activity.
The study analyzed more than 85,000 adults in the United Kingdom over about eight years by comparing participants’ health records with data from activity trackers worn on the wrist, collected by the UK Biobank. Of the participants, around 80,000 had no history of heart disease.
For women in this group, around four hours of exercise per week decreased their risk of heart disease by 30 percent. Men in this group required more than 8.5 hours of exercise per week for the same heart health benefits.
Among the 5,000 participants who had a history of coronary heart disease—the leading cause of death worldwide—women who exercised for 2.5 hours per week were 70 percent less likely to die for any reason within the next eight years, compared to women who did not meet that exercise benchmark, reports Christa Lesté-Lasserre at New Scientist. Men who did the same amount of exercise were only 20 percent less likely to die than those who did not exercise.
“This isn’t bad news for men, it’s just something we should know about,” Nir Eynon, a researcher of aging and exercise at Monash University in Australia who was not involved in the study, tells New Scientist. “Once we know, we can do better—we can do more exercise. And while it’s reassuring for women who are busy all the time, I also think women should not miss the fact that they need to exercise as well.”
Need to know: How does exercise promote heart health?
Exercise increases the strength of the heart, making its chambers bigger and improving its ability to pump blood efficiently. It also can help lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol.
Physiological differences between males and females likely account for the some of the varying effects of exercise, says Jiajin Chen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in China, to ABC News’ Cyrus Mowdawalla.
Estrogen can prompt body fat loss during exercise, which is linked to improved cardiovascular health, and women naturally have higher levels of estrogen than men. Women’s greater proportion of slow-twitch muscles also tends to help their bodies work more efficiently during exercise, while men’s muscles often lend themselves to quicker, more powerful movements, Chen tells ABC News.
The World Health Organization advises that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. Past research has found that, worldwide, fewer women than men meet these exercise goals. Study author Yan Wang, of the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in China, tells the Guardian’s Ian Sample he hopes this study encourages people across the board to exercise.
“We particularly hope that our findings could encourage physically inactive females to become more active, thereby reducing their cardiovascular risk,” he says.
Ersilia DeFilippis, a cardiologist at Columbia University, tells New Scientist that the study is “robust” but does not account for all populations’ exercise needs. Participants in the study were primarily affluent and well-educated, and around 93 percent of them were white.
“Understanding how these findings apply to a more racially diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged population will be imperative in the future, given their higher burden of cardiovascular disease,” she adds.