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The more physical activity a woman gets, the lower her chances of a heart attack or stroke. A recent study of 73,000 women aged between 50 and 80, has looked at how vigorous exercise needs to be to prevent heart disease. Researchers found that the more physical activity a woman was involved with, the lower her chances of a heart attack or stroke. And what counted was how much energy was burnt. The more energy expended, the better off the women were, regardless of whether they smoked, were fat or had high blood pressure. Women who both walked and did vigorous exercise - meaning they worked up a sweat and raised their pulse - did better. And if they just walked, those who charged along very briskly had half the risk of heart disease compared to women who rarely walked or when they did, just ambled along. The advice from this is that while any exercise is good, more is better without going mad. The current official recommendations for exercise are probably too low. Some experts now suggest doing it daily is best because some of the beneficial effects are short lasting. They also think you should be exercising for longer - aiming for an hour a day if you've got the time.
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