Exercise may be routine advice for improving heart health, but its effects may differ depending on race and gender, according to a new study.
Researchers reviewed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, a long- term look that included more than 15,000 men and women. Information on 8,764 people was analyzed to determine what effects exercise had on cholesterol and triglycerides.
Overall, women had higher HDL (“good”) cholesterol and total cholesterol, but men had higher LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides. Blacks had significantly lower triglycerides than whites.
Increases in physical activity levels coincided with overall increases of HDL cholesterol and decreased levels of triglycerides in whites. Those increases were also associated with improved LDL levels only in women, and total cholesterol only in black women.
Researchers discovered that physical activity had more effect on LDL cholesterol in post-menopausal women.
The study appeared in the August issue of the Journal of Lipid Research.
