Originally published August 21 2005
Study establishes healthy exercise levels based on women's ages
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A new study establishes appropriate exercise levels for women based on their age and finds that women who are able to exercise to those levels are more likely to live longer than women who cannot.
For the first time, researchers have established how much exercise women should be able to do for their age and found that their capacity is slightly lower than men's.
Women whose exercise capacity was less than 85 percent of what it should be were twice as likely to die within eight years, the researchers found.
Researchers used the results of 5,721 exercise stress tests on women over 35 to figure out what should be considered normal for them.
''In general, women's fitness levels seem to be lower regardless of her age than for men,'' said Dr. Martha Gulati, a Chicago cardiologist who led the study.
''That's not a whole lot you're losing,'' said Marco Borges, a South Florida fitness trainer, who emphasized that the news shouldn't be taken as a negative.
The 5,721 Chicago-area women who took the treadmill stress test in 1992 had the speed and incline increased until they became tired.
Their exercise capacity was estimated in metabolic equivalents, or METs.
One MET is the amount of energy or oxygen used to sit quietly for a minute.
Moderate walking burns three to six METs per minute; running consumes more than six METs.
Practically speaking, though, ''If you're pudgy at 53 and lose some weight and start to exercise at 54, you will be healthier than you were at 50 and your exercise capacity can be greater, too,'' Borges said.
Exercise machines at health clubs ''spit out how many METs you're doing depending on how hard you're working,'' Gulati said.
She and her colleagues also tested their fitness equation to see how well it predicted survival during the eight years the volunteers were followed and in another group of 4,471 women with heart-disease symptoms who were followed for five years.
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