Older Adults Who Get Physical Can Lower Their Heart Disease Risk

A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found older adults, especially women, who spend more time engaged in light to vigorous physical activity can improve their cardiovascular health, reports Medical Xpress . "The 60 to 64 age range represents an important transition between work and retirement, when lifestyle behaviors tend to change," says the University of Bristol's Ahmed Elhakeem. "It may, therefore, be an opportunity to promote increased physical activity." The team studied more than 1,600 volunteers, 60 to 64, who wore heart rate and movement monitors for five days. Each additional 10 minutes they spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity was associated with leptin levels that were 3.7 percent lower in men and 6.6 percent lower in women. Moreover, every additional 10 minutes spent sedentary was associated with 0.6 percent higher IL-6 levels in men and 1.4 percent higher IL-6 levels in women. In addition, each extra 10 minutes spent in light intensity activity was associated with about 0.8 percent lower t-PA levels in both men and women, while less sedentary time and greater time in low-intensity activity were beneficially related to IL-6 and t-PA. Subjects with better cardiorespiratory fitness had a healthier biomarker profile, although this effect largely went away after controlling for related differences in body fat. Total activity volume appeared connected to these biomarkers regardless of underlying cardiorespiratory fitness.