Exercise & Fitness for women over 40

National Women's Health Report, Dec, 2002 by Pamela Peeke

For most of her adult life, Phyllis Ingram of Barto, PA, was too busy raising her two children to even think about her own health. Consequently, by the time she turned 52, she carted an unhealthy 225 pounds around on her 5'6" frame. Just walking up the 12 steps in her house left her gasping for breath, and she suffered daily with a multitude of annoying aches and pains.

Today, Ms. Ingram is 50 pounds lighter and her body is rock solid with muscle. She rides hundreds of miles a year on her road bike (sometimes nearly 100 miles in a weekend) and is training for a cross-country bike ride sometime next year.

Ms. Ingram is a convert, convinced of the power of exercise and physical activity, determined never to return to the world of the unfit. "I find I get grouchy if I don't get my exercise in," she says.

Unfortunately, she's the exception. More than 60 percent of women don't get the recommended amount of physical activity, and one in four women aren't physically active at all. (1) That number jumps in women over 55--nearly 40 percent of whom say they get no leisure-time physical activity. (2)

Yet the benefits of physical activity and exercise if you're middle-age or older begin at the top of your head and continue to the tips of your toes, affecting every body system in between and contributing more to your overall health and longevity than any pill or diet ever will. And studies find that your mid-30s through your 40s is a critical time period for determining whether you'll remain physically active after menopause, (3) something you definitely want to strive for. The best reason? You'll likely live longer. One large study of older women found that exercise reduced all causes of death in postmenopausal women. (4)

Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, reduces levels of "bad" cholesterol while raising levels of good" cholesterol and slows your resting heart rate, enabling it to work more efficiently. In one study, women who walked briskly for three or more hours per week slashed their risk of heart disease 35 percent compared to women who walked less frequently. (5)

Several studies have found that physically active women experience less intense and fewer symptoms of menopause, including the ubiqu-tous hot flashes. In one survey of 625 runners aged 34 to 72 (average age 51), three-quarters said running had a positive impact on menopause, one-third said it improved their mood and overall emotional status, and one-fourth said it decreased menopausal symptoms. (19)

Physical activity also reduces your risk of colon cancel; perhaps by helping food move through the digestive tract more quickly, thus limiting the contact of cancer-causing chemicals with the cells that line the colon. (6) It reduces the risk of kidney stones, gallstone surgery and diverticular disease. (7,8) And, weight-bearing exercise, like walking, riding a bike or lifting weights, not only strengthens muscle, but also strengthens bone, helping increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis. (9)

Exercise can also lower the risk of the disease women fear most: breast cancer. A study published in the American College of Sports Medicine's Health Fitness Journal of 26,000 women found that women who exercised at least four hours a week had 37 percent fewer breast cancers than sedentary women. Researchers think that moderate to high activity levels lower a woman's lifetime exposure to estrogen, a primary risk factor for breast cancer. (10)

Exercise has numerous emotional benefits, too. It can help you fall asleep faster and sleep longer and deeper, (11) and relieve depression. One small study found that just 30 minutes of daily walking on a treadmill at various intensities worked faster than medication to lift depression. (12) Even if you're not depressed, the release of feel-good hormones called endorphins during physical activity can provide a euphoric feeling, according to Todd Stitik, MD, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Then there are exercise's well-studied stress-reducing benefits. In study after study, aerobic exercise (i.e., walking) reduces anxiety, improves depression, helps you better cope with stress and contributes to a positive mood, self-esteem and mental functioning. (18) Not bad for a brisk march around the block.

Blasting Through the Excuses

So if the benefits of exercise are so clearly significant, why isn't every woman out there running, biking, walking, swimming, lifting or any of the other numerous -ings that translate into physical activity?

"The number one barrier we hear is 'I don't have the time,'" says Bess H. Marcus, PhD, who directs the Physical Activity Research Center at Brown University Medical School in Providence, RI. The center conducts scientific research on various aspects of physical activity and health.

That may be due to the mistaken belief that physical activity means hard, intense exercise, the kind that makes you drip with sweat and leaves your muscles aching the next morning.