Past research has shown that exercise can greatly affect how long we’ll live. In fact, how active you are can impact your longevity more than your genes. Exercise helps you stay well and benefits many areas of health.
New research has found that this is even more true for women than men. Women who exercise regularly have a 24 percent lower risk of dying from any cause compared to inactive women. In comparison, physically active men have a 15 percent lower risk than their inactive counterparts. And, to see the health benefit, women only need half as much exercise as men.
Researchers looked at data from more than 412,000 adults between 1997 and 2017 to learn the health benefits of exercise. They saw that the most health benefits were seen in men from exercising moderately to vigorously — like walking fast or biking — about five hours a week. Women only needed about two and a half hours to reach their peak benefit. Weight training also reduced mortality risks. Weightlifting and core exercises lowered the risk of dying by 19 percent for women and 11 percent for men.
Despite the health benefits women receive, they are less likely to workout than men. Very few people get as much exercise as federal guidelines tell us to. About 28 percent of men workout the recommended amount, and about 20 percent of women do.
“This important study emphasizes the power of exercise for women,” said Dr. Patricia Best, an interventional cardiologist and member of the Women’s Heart Clinic at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Best said that after a heart attack, “women have frequently been referred to cardiovascular rehab less than men, and this study helps to give credence to the importance of exercise in women.”
“It turns out women can get a lot more return for even a little bit of investment than they might realize,” said Dr. Susan Cheng, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Smidt Heart Institute and senior author of the study. “[A] little bit can go a really long way.”
The study was observational and used self-reported data, so it might not have been fully accurate. While it asked about exercise, it might not have accounted for things like work or household chores that can quickly add up. Moreover, as it was observational, people weren’t asked to change their behavior, so cause and effect cannot be proven. The people who exercised had a lower mortality risk. But, it cannot be concluded that exercise caused the lower risk.
One thing the study does show is that “women are not just small men.” Health needs are different between the sexes. “For years, we’ve used men as the standard,” said study co-author Dr. Martha Gulati, director of preventive cardiology at Cedars-Sinai. Guidelines have to take sex into account.
Another significant takeaway is that we all, men and women, should be moving more. Neither men nor women get as much exercise as recommended. Whether you hit the federal guidelines or not, more movement in your day yields health benefits.
