Healthy Women Told To Find Time To Exercise, Or Lose Years
The Age
Saturday September 20, 2003
Women too busy to exercise may have less time than they thought, a large American study has found.
The study, by Chicago's Rush University, tracked 5700 women for eight years and found the least fit were three times more likely to die from heart disease. Fitness proved a stronger factor in death than smoking, cholesterol or blood pressure.
Earlier studies had linked poor exercise with mortality in men, ``but this is the first study large enough to examine the issue in a cross-section of healthy women", said lead author Martha Gulati of the study published in the American Heart Foundation's Circulation journal.
Although men get cardiovascular disease earlier and more often, in Australia the number of heart failure deaths is 1.7 times higher in women than men.
When recruited in 1992, none of the women, average age 52, had heart disease. They underwent a stress test, running on a treadmill until they became dizzy, breathless or exhausted.
Over eight years, their exercise capacity, scored in metabolic equivalents (MET), was compared with deaths from all causes.
``For every 1-MET increase in exercise capacity, there was a 17 per cent decrease in the risk of death," Dr Gulati said.
A previous US study of older men found their risk of death decreased by 12 per cent per unit of exercise capacity.
``The study shows that exercise capacity is just as important, if not more so, in women," said Baker Heart Institute's senior researcher Bronwyn Kingwell.
Experts contacted by The Age said Australian men and women were not active enough.
In 1997, 38 per cent of Australians weren't getting the amount of exercise recommended to prevent disease - 30 minutes of brisk activity on most days. By 2000, this figure had increased to 44 per cent.
The 2001 Victorian Population Health Survey found more than half of Victorians were not active enough to get health benefits.
``They think physical activity is all to do with preventing obesity," said Dick Telford, director of Bluearth Institute, a non-profit fitness group. ``If you are obese and physically active, your risk of disease and mortality is less than someone built like a stick who doesn't get off their backside," he said. ``Physical inactivity is the major risk we have."
US experts have coined the term Sedentary Death Syndrome to cover a number of conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, that kill an estimated 10,500 Australians each year.
People deprived of physical activity by modern technology were at risk, said VicHealth chief executive Rob Moodie.
``Over the last 30 years, the opportunities for exercise have silently crept out of our lives," Mr Moodie said.
``Thirty years ago, 80 per cent of kids walked to school. Now 20 per cent do."
Daily exercise did not have to mean gym workouts. ``If you walk to the car for 10 minutes and walk back, that's a good 20 minutes of exercise if you walk briskly," Mr Telford said.
The National Heart Foundation recommended that people who hadn't exercised before, especially those over 40, consult their doctor before embarking on a fitness regime.
PAT PETTIT, 66
RETIRED LIBRARIAN
Having recently joined a gym for the first time, Pat Pettit, left, is determined to stay active. ``I try to come to the gym at least twice a week and to walk at least an hour a day. I've just started because of all things you hear that you should do as you get older - more weight training for bone density and stamina and to live longer and better. It makes me feel good and fitter. It means I can go for long bushwalks. I went back to skiing this year and I wasn't as fit as I would like to be. Being retired I can usually organise time. But this week I had a sick grandchild, so that was a day off."
VICKI GILLIES, 31
IT PROFESSIONAL
Blessed with active friends, Vicki Gillies, above, spends her leisure time working up a sweat. ``I like to mix it up or I get restless. I do a tae box class after work on Tuesday, at lunchtime I do a high-low (impact) aerobics class or body conditioning, I play squash on Thursday nights and go for a walk on the weekend. I try to fit in four things, a mix of cardio and toning. I'm really conscious of keeping an overall level of fitness, especially because I work in an office and I sit at a desk all day. It's also a mental thing. It makes me feel better and it breaks the day up. When I get home my flatmate might say, `Do you want to go for a walk?' or my boyfriend might suggest a game of squash."
© 2003 The Age