To prevent coronary heart disease, men need to train twice as long as women. The guidelines need to be updated.
Men have to work twice as hard as women to achieve the same level of prevention of cardiovascular disease. Or – if you prefer: women only need to train half as long as men to get the same heart health benefits.
For men over fifty it takes about 9 hours of “moderate to vigorous” physical activity per week (cycling or walking at a good pace is also worth it) to achieve a 30% drop in the risk of coronary heart disease, the narrowing of the arteries caused by fat deposits. For women, about 4 hours would be enough to achieve the same effect.
Healthy with less effort
The discovery, explained by scientists from Xiamen University (China) in a study on Nature Cardiovascular Researchderives from the analysis of data from physical activity trackers of over 80,200 people, with an average age of 61, who participated in the UK Biobank medical study.
Participants were in good cardiovascular health and were followed for 8 years. An initial observation showed that women who regularly performed the 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity recommended by the main guidelines for maintaining health reduced the risk of coronary heart disease by 22%. For men, the same training time guaranteed a drop in risk of only 17%.
Achieving a 30% reduction in the probability of getting coronary heart disease required increasing efforts: however, if 250 minutes a week were enough for women, men needed – need – 530.
More effective exercise
A second analysis of more than 5,000 men and women who had previously experienced coronary heart disease showed that the risk of death over the next 8 years was three times lower for women who exercised for the recommended 150 minutes than for men who performed the same task.
Although the study did not delve into the causes of this difference, one hypothesis is that it depends on hormonal factors. Higher estrogen levels could help you burn more fat when you exercise. Furthermore, biological differences may force women to use more respiratory, muscular and metabolic strength to perform the same exercises as men. The exact same workout routine could therefore be more “tiring” and heart-training for women, compared to men.
Better to know!
Now experts hope that what has emerged will encourage women, who more often than men do not achieve the minimum amount of exercise recommended to keep their hearts healthy, to train: they could in fact obtain great benefits with relatively little effort.
And the men? Having taken note of this… injusticethey will have the excuse to train a little more.