When it comes to reaping heart health benefits from physical activity, women saw bigger drops than men in their risk of developing coronary heart disease when they followed or exceeded weekly exercise recommendations. And as a new study published Monday in Nature Cardiovascular Research reports, they needed fewer minutes to see significant health improvements.
Based on activity data mined from wearables strapped to the wrists of more than 85,000 UK Biobank participants, the observational study concluded females had a 22% lower risk of coronary heart disease if they logged 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous exercise. Males doing the same amount of exercise had a 17% lower risk.
When physical activity was amped up to 250 minutes per week, females logged a 30% reduction in their risk of disease. To reach that level, males had to increase their activity to 530 minutes per week.
