Women Benefit More Than Men From Exercise

Women, particularly African-American women, experience greater cardiovascular benefits than men as a result of exercise, U.S. researchers found.

The study, published in the Journal of Lipid Research, said the long-term study of more than 8,700 middle-aged men and women provides race- and gender-specific data on the cholesterol effects of physical activity -- with women experiencing greater benefits than men.

Corresponding author Keri Monda of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that during a 12-year period, all individuals who increased their exercise by about 180 metabolic units per week -- equivalent to an additional hour of mild, or 30 minutes of moderate, activity per week -- displayed decreased levels of triglycerides and increased levels of high-density lipoprotein, the "good" cholesterol.

However, statistically significant decreases in the low-density lipoprotein, "bad" cholesterol were only observed in women, with particularly strong effects in menopausal women and African-American women.