Good news on the research front

[GayeC]

I just read an interesting article in the 3/21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. A group of researchers from Harvard have been studying coronary heart disease (CHD) in a group of 30,000+ women. They found that women who exercise, even moderately, have a significantly reduced risk of CHD. Quoting from the article: "It is encouraging to observe that vigorous activities were not necessary for lower CHD rates. Among women who did not engage in vigorous activities, walking was associated with lower risk. These data suggest that walking need not be fast-paced for benefit; time spent walking was more important than walking pace." Even women who were overweight or had elevated cholesterol had reduced risk of CHD if they walked.

Just a bit of encouraging news. Even if some of us (me!) have not attained all of our goals, our efforts are not without benefit!

[mandarin2j]

GayeC-

That's great news! I'm going to tell my walking buddy today 'cause she was saying that our weekly walks, since they were only once weekly, probably weren't doing her any good (I droned on forever about this in my HLSG post this week!). It's good to know that the damage we do by being sedentary and overweight is not irreversible and that every step we take toward increased fitness helps. It's a great counter to the "why bother?" mentality that we have to fight (both w/in ourselves and from others) when we begin the move from fat to fit. Thanks for the inspiration! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

-Amanda