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interactiveStudy: Women Can Walk To Heart Health

Walking An Hour Weekly Reduces Heart Disease Risk, Says Study

Laura Bobendrier, Staff Writer
March 20, 2001, 6:20 p.m. EST

MINNEAPOLIS -- Women have a new reason to travel by foot.

WOMEN SHOULD WALK
Walking and women
New Study Confirms Heart Benefit
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HEART DISEASE
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    New research concludes that walking at least an hour per week is good for women's hearts -- no matter what pace they take.

    The five-year study, reported in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, found that women who walked at least one hour a week had a significantly lower rate of coronary heart disease.

    The researchers took a close look at walking because it is the most popular leisure activity for women. But the team, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, looked at healthy women doing several types of physical activity and how it affected their rates of coronary heart disease.

    Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States.

    Don't Have To Be A Speed Demon

    Although the researchers found that vigorous activities lowered risk of heart disease, simply walking was beneficial.

    "Women who walked at least one hour per week had about half the (coronary heart disease) rates of women who did not walk regularly," the researchers wrote.

    Women don't have to walk at full speed to reap the benefits, however.

    "These data suggest that walking need not be fast-paced for benefit; time spent walking was more important than walking pace," the researchers wrote.

    Previous studies have found that physically active women have lower coronary heart disease rates than inactive women. However, the relationship between activity intensity and lowered heart-disease risk, as well as the effect of physical activity on high-risk females, is unclear.

    The researchers acknowledge that one hour of walking a week is less than other medical authorities have previously recommended. Until their results are confirmed, the researchers urge women to follow current exercise guidelines: moderate-intensity physical activity for 30 minutes per day most days of the week.

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