Women Show More Pronounced Health Benefits From Physical Activity

Many experimental studies have found that physical exercise can improve cholesterol levels and subsequently decrease the risks of cardiovascular disease; however, few of these studies have included enough participant diversity to provide ethnic breakdowns. Now, a long-term study of over 8,700 middle-aged men and women provides race- and gender- specific data on the cholesterol effects of physical activity, with the interesting result that women, particularly African-American women, experience greater benefits as a result of exercise than men.

The analysis of this large Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, which appears in the August issue of Journal of Lipid Research, was carried out by Keri Monda and colleagues at North Carolina and Baylor. They found that over a 12 year period, all individuals who increased their exercise by about 180 metabolic units per week (equivalent to an additional hour of mild or 30 minutes of moderate activity per week) displayed decreased levels of triglycerides and increased levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol. However, statistically significant decreases in the “bad” LDL cholesterol were only observed in women, with particularly strong effects in menopausal women and African-American women. And total cholesterol levels were only significantly decreased in African-American women. Read more

Depressed Women Can Lose Weight As Successfully As Others Do

Women with major depression were no less likely than were women without it to have successful results with a weight loss program, according to an article in the Winter 2009 Behavioral Medicine. Group Health Research Institute Senior Research Associate Evette J. Ludman, PhD, the study leader, concluded that weight loss programs should not exclude depressed people.

Dr. Ludman’s study included 190 female Group Health patients age 40 to 65 with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more: 65 with major depressive disorder and 125 without it. The women had not been seeking treatment, but they enrolled in a one-year behavioral weight loss intervention involving 26 group sessions. The intervention, developed at the University of Minnesota over the past 20 years, has proven at least as good as any other currently available non-medical treatment.

Some previous research had hinted that depression might worsen outcomes in behavioral weight loss programs. That’s why trials of weight loss interventions typically exclude people with major depression.

“We expected women with major depression to lose less weight, attend fewer sessions, eat more calories, and get less exercise than those without depression,” Dr. Ludman said. Read more

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