Unfit women warned over heart disease

UNFIT women are around four times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease or other causes than those with a good fitness level, research suggests.

The annual rate of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) was almost four times higher in women with poor exercise capacity, while death rates from other causes were more than four times higher.

There were double the number of annual cancer deaths in women with a poor exercise capacity compared to those who were ranked as “good”.

The Spanish research was presented at EuroEcho 2019, a congress of the European Society of Cardiology in Vienna.

Study author Dr Jesús Peteiro, of University Hospital A Coruña, Spain, said: “Exercise as much as you can. Fitness protects against death from any cause.”

The study involved 4,714 women, mainly middle-aged or older, with an average age of 64, who were referred for echocardiography because of known or suspected coronary artery disease.

The participants walked or ran on a treadmill, increasing the intensity and continuing until exhaustion.

Women who achieved a workload of at least 10 metabolic equivalents (METs) – the equivalent of walking fast up four flights of stairs without stopping – had a good exercise capacity. Those who did not had a poor exercise capacity.

During an average followup of 4.6 years, there were 345 cardiovascular deaths, 164 cancer deaths and 203 deaths from other causes.

Dr Peteiro added: “Women whose heart works normally during exercise are unlikely to have a cardiovascular event. But if their exercise capacity is poor, they are still at risk of death from cancer or other causes.”