Physical Activity

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

The following dated ***MAY 2005*** may be relevant.

Note particularly: " Physical inactivity, defined as less than 1 hour

of exercise per week, was associated with a 52% increase in overall

mortality and with a doubling of cardiovascular mortality. "

This suggests that the benefit almost all comes from reduced

cardiovascular risk since the doubling of cardiovascular mortality

will make up the most part of the 52% rise in overall mortality among

those who are inactive.

BUT .......... since those on CR already have a very dramatically

reduced cardiovascular risk it seems likely that physical activity

will confer much less benefit to those on CR than for the majority of

the population who are daily clogging up their arteries on the SAD

diet.

[i am NOT saying we should avoid activity. I am saying that the most

part of the benefit of exercise appears, from this study, to be to

fix problems we on CRON are not likely to encounter.]

Here is the abstract:

" Adiposity as Compared With Physical Activity in Predicting Mortality

Among Women.

Hu FB, Willett WC, Li T, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Manson JE.

Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public

Health; and Channing Laboratory and Division of Preventive Medicine,

Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and

Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

Some believe that improved physical fitness can counter the effects

of overweight and obesity on illness and death. If so, the

implication is that obesity may be a less important factor in

mortality than fitness. The investigators reviewed data on body mass

index (BMI) and mortality for 116,564 women participating in the

Nurses' Health Study. In 1976, the women were 30 to 55 years of age

and had no known cardiovascular disease or cancer. The 10,282 deaths

occurring during 24 years of follow-up included 5223 from cancer and

2370 from cardiovascular disease.A direct relationship between BMI

and mortality was evident when only women who had never smoked were

analyzed. On multivariate analysis, the relationship held for deaths

from cancer and, more strongly, for deaths from cardiovascular

causes. Increased mortality correlated significantly with both excess

weight/obesity and physical inactivity. Overall mortality for obese

women, whose BMI was 30 kg/m or higher, was double that for lean

women having a BMI less than 25 kg/m. Deaths from cardiovascular

disease were 3 times as high, and cancer mortality was increased 65%.

Physical inactivity, defined as less than 1 hour of exercise per

week, was associated with a 52% increase in overall mortality and

with a doubling of cardiovascular mortality. Overweight and obesity

predicted increased mortality independently of the level of physical

activity, and higher activity levels did not weaken the association

between obesity and mortality. Compared with lean, active women, the

relative risk of death was 1.55 for lean, inactive women, 1.91 for

obese women who were active, and 2.42 for obese women who were

inactive. In the entire cohort, excess weight and physical inactivity

together accounted for an estimated 26% of all premature deaths, 47%

of deaths from cardiovascular causes, and 16% of deaths from cancer.

When analysis was limited to women who had never smoked, the

respective figures were 31%, 59%, and 21%.The BMI and the level of

physical activity significantly and independently predicted mortality

in these middle-aged women, but a high activity level did not

eliminate the excess of deaths associated with obesity. In addition,

being lean did not counteract the increased mortality associated with

inactivity. Public health efforts should emphasize the importance of

maintaining healthy body weight and also the need to engage regularly

in physical activity. "

Rodney.