How women gain more health benefits from regular exercise than men

Women experience more health benefits than men from regular exercise, says a new study. Research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that women and men reap different gains from the same levels of physical activity.

How was the study conducted? What has it found? Let’s take a closer look.

The method of study

Researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute in California studied 412,413 men and women in the United States who participated in the National Health Interview Survey from 1997 to 2017. People who had preexisting conditions were not included in the study.

Out of the total participants between the 27 and 61 ages, 55 per cent were women. They participated in health surveys, which consisted of questions on exercise.

By December 2019 end, 39,935 volunteers had died, of which 11,670 deaths were from cardiovascular events such as heart attacks or strokes, as per The Guardian.

What has the study found?

The study by a team of researchers from the US and China found women who regularly exercise have a notably lower risk of early death, including from cardiovascular events, as compared to men who do the same, reported Fortune magazine.

According to the observational study, regular physical activity slashed the risk of mortality by 24 per cent in women and 15 per cent in men.

It also found that boys and men tend to engage in more physical activities than girls and women. Nearly one-third of the women did aerobic exercises, such as brisk walking, cycling or jumping rope, compared with 43 per cent of the surveyed men.

Men also undertook more muscle-strengthening activities, such as lifting weights, than women. They also did both types of exercise more regularly.

The health benefits of exercise were greater for women, as per the study.

The risk of fatal cardiovascular events fell by 30 per cent in women who did strength training as compared to 11 per cent for men, The Telegraph reported citing the research.

According to the study, men need to exercise for 300 minutes, or five hours, per week to reduce their mortality risk by 18 per cent compared with their peers who did not exercise.

On the other hand, women need to do 140 minutes, less than two and a half hours, of weekly exercise to get the same benefits. Moreover, women who regularly exercise had a 24 per cent lower risk of dying than their inactive peers at 300 minutes per week, reported Fortune magazine.

ALSO READ: How just 22 minutes of daily exercise can reduce the risk of premature death

Should women exercise less?

No, say the authors of the research.

“Our study doesn’t suggest that women should exercise less, but rather it encourages women who may not be getting enough exercise for various reasons, that even relatively small amounts of exercise can provide significant benefits,” Dr Hongwei Ji, co-author of the study from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Dr Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute, said the study showed that even limited hours of regular exercise can provide major gains, especially for women.

“Taking some regular time out for exercise, even if it’s just 20-30 minutes of vigorous exercise a few times each week, can offer a lot more gain than they may realise,” she said, as per The Telegraph.

The US Department of Health and Human Services suggests 150 minutes of weekly moderate physical activity for adults, including two days of muscle-strengthening exercises.

However, Dr Martha Gulati, a coauthor of the study and director of preventive cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, questions these guidelines, saying it “can be very overwhelming to someone who does zero.”

“Women are busy. Women work. Women usually take the bulk of family responsibilities — whether that’s children, whether that’s elderly parents — and by the time the day finishes, there’s very little time,” Gulati told NBC News.

The study lacks as it does not take into account the physical activity linked to household activities.

“Missing from our data are the things that we do every day — the other physical activity that’s not going to the gym but running after kids, doing gardening, doing household chores,” Gulati said, as per NBC News.

According to Paul Arciero, a professor of sports, medicine and nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh, physiological differences between men and women may give more advantage to the latter.

The new study shows that “women are basically more efficient in responding to exercise, particularly when it comes to heart health and mortality,” Arciero told NBC News.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Dr Christie Albert of the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute said: “I am hopeful that this pioneering research will motivate women who are not currently engaged in regular physical activity to understand that they are in a position to gain tremendous benefit for each increment of regular exercise they are able to invest in their longer-term health.”

With inputs from agencies