Exercise cuts stroke risk.Your take on this headline could be, "well, duh, who didn't know that?" General cardiovascular health and increased longevity are surely among the many benefits of regular, vigorous exercise vigorous exercise A form of exercise that is intense enough to cause sweating and/or heavy breathing/ and/or ↑ heart rate to near maximum; VE is formally defined as that which requires > 6 METs; there is a graded inverse relationship between total physical . So why is this news? It's news because the study was large, prospective, well-designed, and it produced the strongest evidence yet that regular exercise reduces stroke risk, not just heart disease risk. Researchers found that as exercise levels increased, stroke risk decreased even after controlling for diet, smoking, high blood pressure, and other risks. Those who exercised the most had half the risk of ischemic stroke Noun 1. ischemic stroke - the most common kind of stroke; caused by an interruption in the flow of blood to the brain (as from a clot blocking a blood vessel) ischaemic stroke (the kind caused by a blockage of an artery to the brain) as the least active. The study also showed that women who had been sedentary sedentary /sed·en·tary/ (sed´en-tar?e) 1. sitting habitually; of inactive habits. 2. pertaining to a sitting posture. sedentary of inactive habits; pertaining to a fat, castrated or confined animal. but started exercising late in life, benefited with reduced risk of stroke. And, it didn't matter the type of exercise as long as it was at least moderately vigorous. Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, reduces weight, and raises good cholesterol 'good' cholesterol A popular term for HDL-cholesterol, see there. Cf 'Bad' cholesterol. , and overall reduces risk of heart attacks and strokes, Of course, that's not news for us. We know that running to your heart's content does a body-good, in a multitude of ways. (Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. , 2000, Vol. 283. No. 22, pp. 2961-2967) |
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