HHS HealthBeat (April 12, 2010)

A walk away from stroke

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Being regularly physically active can reduce a woman’s risk of stroke. And you don’t have to kill yourself trying to get the benefit.

At the Harvard School of Public Health, Jacob Sattelmair saw that in 12 years of survey data on more than 39,000 women, generally middle aged, in the Women’s Health Survey:  

"Women who walked more than two hours per week had a 30 percent lower risk of stroke compared to women who did not walk." (6 seconds)

Women who usually walked at a brisk pace had a 37 percent lower risk.

Sattelmair says 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity physical activity is a good minimum for heart and general circulatory health.

The study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2011