ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vigorous activity - jogging, racket sports, swimming or aerobics - appeared to afford even greater advantages.
A study finds that women who exercise after menopause tend to outlive sedentary women, and as little as one long walk a week can make a difference.
The more that older women exercise, the better their chances of a long life, the researchers said in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Findings in the seven-year study of more than 40,000 postmenopausal women in Iowa parallel earlier research in men, in younger adults of both sexes and in small studies that included older women, researchers said.
Women who engaged in moderate activity - such as bowling, gardening or a long walk - four or more times a week were 33 percent less likely to die during the study than women who never were physically active, researchers found.
Women who engaged in moderate activity just once weekly were 12 percent less likely to die than their sedentary counterparts, said researchers led by Dr. Lawrence H. Kushi of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.
Vigorous activity - jogging, racket sports, swimming or aerobics - appeared to afford even greater advantages, but so few subjects regularly engaged in vigorous activity that results weren't statistically significant.
During thestudy, 2,284 subjects died - 1,101 from cancer, 739 from cardiovascular disease, 150 from respiratory disease, 57 from injury and 237 from other causes.
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