Regular Exercise Reduces Stroke Risk

According to a new study, people who exercise regularly are less likely to have a stroke.

There are about 795,000 people in the U.S. who suffer a stroke in a year and a whopping 610,000 are first-time strokes. The condition is not only the leading cause of death in the country, but also one of the leading reasons of disability in older American citizens, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and was based on data from 27,000 people aged 45 and older who didn't have a stroke at the start of the study. People in the study were either African American or Caucasians and were all a part of the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study cohort.

Participants were divided into various categories depending on the amount of physical activity they performed per week.

The study results showed that in men, regular exercise led to lower risk of stroke. About 33 percent of the study group was physically inactive and the risk of having a stroke went up 20 percent in this group. The relationship between exercise frequency and stroke risk wasn't clear in women participants.

 "The protective effect of intense physical activity may be through its impact on traditional risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes," said Virginia Howard, Ph.D., UAB professor of epidemiology and senior author of the study.

"These findings confirm past results of studies done in only men or only women in limited geographical areas," Howard said in a press release. "By using the REGARDS cohort, our study was able to use a larger and more diverse population to show that participating in regular physical activity is associated with lower stroke risk."

The study is published in the journal Stroke.                              

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, people should get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise every week. A recent report from the federal agency stated that 62 percent of people in the U.S. walk for about 10 minutes a week.

A recent study had found that extending exercise time on bad days reduces anxiety and increases life satisfaction. Physical activity has also been linked to reduced brain damage in older adults.