It’s one of the unfortunate facts of the world that it remains skewed firmly against women, despite the best efforts of many. New reports from the Smidt Heart Institute, however, suggest that nature at least is on the side of women. A new study published by the Institute reveals that women actually enjoy more heart health benefits from exercise than men do. These findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in a study titled ‘Sex Differences in Association of Physical Activity With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality’.
The study looked at the data gathered by the National Health Interview Survey on 412,413 U.S. adults. This data was then further analysed in order to gain some insight into possible disparities in gender-specific outcomes in relation to duration, frequency, intensity, and type of physical activity when it comes to exercise. First of all, it reiterated what we have already known for quite some time, even without scientific evidence to back it up: mortality rates among people who engage in regular physical activity are low in comparison to those who do not. What was unexpected was the finding that there was a clear difference in benefits between women and men.
According to the study, on average, men are more likely to engage in dedicated physical exercise than women—and enjoy a lowered risk of 15% of any-cause mortality. While women were less likely to engage in this type of dedicated self-care, they enjoyed a lowered risk of 24% of any-cause mortality should they choose to do so. Speaking to ABC News, Dr. Susan Cheng, the Director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging at the Smidt Institute, described the discovery as exciting, particularly given the higher levels of labour that women engage in the domestic space.
“When it comes to looking at the particular amounts, particularly with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, women could get almost double the return for the same investment compared to male counterparts… (The findings are) exciting and positive, especially for the really busy women out there who are juggling a lot of responsibilities both at work and at home.”
The health benefits of different types of activity also appear to have a gender component to them. The study also finds that there is a significant difference in the reduction in mortality risk when women engage in muscle-strengthening activities compared to when men do the same. For example, women who engage in activities such as weightlifting or core exercises saw a reduction of 19% in risk of any-cause mortality, while men enjoyed a reduction of 11%.
These findings are especially important given the disadvantage that women experience in establishing an accurate diagnosis for their health conditions. One study that investigated this particular issue even raised the question of whether it would not be medically relevant to consider the women’s cardiovascular system as its own speciality in the study of medicine due to its unique nature. Given that women’s cardiovascular conditions were treated using data and generalisations established through the study of—for the most part—men, the under-representation and under-treatment of women under current systems and scientific beliefs can only be imagined. The study, available to the public in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, was a literature review of several different studies conducted over the years, titled ‘Analysis of Gender-Based Inequality in Cardiovascular Health: An Umbrella Review’. The paper calls the dearth of scientific study into women’s cardiovascular health a “travesty of inequality in cardiovascular health… to the detriment of women”.
The present study only serves to highlight this difference, which has been unidentified and disregarded for so long. Speaking on the study results, Martha Gulati, the Associate Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Centre also expressed her disappointment with the healthcare recommendations that had been offered to women for so long. “Any time recommendations are the same for men and women, it begs the question: Should they be?” asked Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FASPC. “What are those recommendations based on? Is there evidence; is there data? Many times, assumptions are made and there are no data specific to women.” It is important to note that this study too is based on self-reported dedicated exercise, which means that physical activity associated with household activities was overlooked. It remains to be seen in further studies whether this is one other instance where labour in the domestic space passes unaccounted for, or whether the new findings can be taken as fact.
There are of course many biological factors that may affect these results beyond the frequency and intensity of physical exercise. For one, the physiological makeup of women is markedly different from that of men—it is very likely that the exercise sessions that women engage in reflect higher relative loads compared to men. Factors such as skeletal muscle, stature, and the like, too play a role. The menstrual cycle is also a defining factor in the level of physical exercise that people are even able to engage in at any given time. Observing quantitative data clearly does not necessarily give much insight into physical exercise as it pertains to cardiovascular health. It also doesn’t take the physical effort women make for a given physical task, which potentially explains the different responses they show to the same absolute “doses” of exercise.
The most important takeaway from this study as a whole isn’t that women should cut down on their current exercise levels. Rather, these findings should be interpreted as an encouragement to all women who feel the pressure of not being able to exercise regularly enough. Whatever exercise they are capable of providing for themselves alone can have significant benefits in the long term.
(Theruni M. Liyanage)