Moderate to heavy exercise 'decreases stroke risk'
Stroke is now the second biggest single killer in the UK, with rates continuing to increase, but men at high risk may be able to lower their chances of having an attack, a new study has shown.
Experts from the Columbia University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia have revealed that moderate to heavy exercise can help to lower a man's risk of having a stroke, though for women it made no difference.
According to the healthcare specialists, this includes activities such as jogging, tennis or swimming and people who take part in these exercises may be less likely to have a stroke than people who get no or light exercise, such as walking, golfing or bowling.
The study was published in the November 24th issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and involved 3,298 people with an average age of 69, who were followed for about nine years.
Dr Joshua Willey, study author, told those with affordable health insurance that men who participated in moderate-to-heavy intensity activities were 63 per cent less likely to have a stroke than people with no physical activity.
He added that the baseline risk of ischemic stroke over five years in the entire group was 4.3 per cent, though among those with moderate-to-heavy intensity activities the risk was only 2.7 per cent.
The specialist explained: "Taking part in moderate-to-heavy intensity physical activity may be an important factor in preventing stroke. A large percentage of the participants were not taking part in any physical activities. This may be true of many elderly people who live in cities. Identifying ways to improve physical activity among these people may be a key goal for public health."
By Louise Jones
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