Older women could restore their arteries to the condition they were in when they were twenty by combining hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with a daily walk, say researchers. Dr Kerrie Moreau and her colleagues at the University of Colorado found that the elasticity of the arteries of 60-year-old women who were taking HRT was restored to the same as that seen in 20-year-old women after just 13-weeks of taking a 40-minute walk five times a week. “What we found was that this 13 weeks of walking actually restored the elasticity of their vessels to premenopausal levels. So you’re actually showing an attenuation of the aging process, a blunting of the aging process,” Moreau said of her findings. The findings suggest that women who take HRT could significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease by going for a regular stroll, however the researchers also stress that women who do not take HRT will also benefit from regular exercise.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 22nd April 2002
