A study found that middle-aged women who exercised regularly had a significantly lower risk of early death than those who did not.
Researchers in Australia found that women who consistently exercised for the recommended weekly amount of 150 minutes – about two and a half hours – had about half the risk of dying compared to inactive people.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, analyzed data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health.
The women were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, giving researchers information on how often they met recommended levels of moderate to vigorous exercise.
Official NHS guidance says moderate activity includes brisk walking, cycling, and hiking, while vigorous activity includes running, swimming, and aerobics.
Women who consistently met the recommendations had a mortality rate of 5.3 percent during the study period, compared with 10.4 percent among those who did not.
Ben Nguyen, from the University of Sydney, said: “Being active in midlife can make a real difference to women’s long-term health.
“Our study shows that maintaining the recommended level of physical activity for several years helps protect against early death.”
A study found that middle-aged women who exercised regularly had a significantly lower risk of early death than those who did not.
The study suggested a similar effect of exercise on reducing the risk of death from heart disease and cancer, although the authors noted that the results “more uncertain and less certain”
However, the research team said their research overall supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife offers health benefits.
They added: ‘Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations in midlife to reap these benefits.’
As the study was observational, the researchers could not prove that exercise directly caused the difference in mortality.
Limitations of the study included reliance on self-reported physical activity and emphasized that the findings may not apply to all middle-aged Australian women.
The NHS says adults should do some form of physical activity every day.
“Exercising just once or twice a week can reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke,” their official guide reads.
This is despite another study showing that just half an hour of walking a day can reduce the risk of breast cancer in young women.
The findings come from a study that examined how aerobic exercise affects proteins in the blood that have cancer-fighting properties.
While breast cancer is more common after menopause, it can be more aggressive and difficult to treat in younger women — prompting scientists to find ways to prevent the disease in this group.
Experts from Riga Stradins University in Latvia studied 18 healthy pre-menopausal women aged around 41 years, tracking how the levels of six anti-cancer biomarkers changed after exercise.
These include mucins—proteins released by muscles during physical activity that are thought to play a role in inhibiting tumor growth.
They found that even walking on a treadmill at a low intensity for 30 minutes produced changes in the blood that slowed the growth of cancer cells.
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