HHS HealthBeat (May 30, 2007)

Doesn’t take much

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A half hour a day of moderate physical activity. That’s typical advice as the minimum for health.

But what happens if you do less? A researcher looked at that in women who had gone through menopause and did not exercise.

Tim Church, now at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, did the work at the Cooper Institute in Dallas. His study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Church says women improved their fitness with as little as 15 minutes a day, five days a week. They also lost belly fat – which, Church notes, is a good thing.

"Weight that’s in the belly or abdomen puts you at higher risk for diabetes, for cholesterol problems, for hypertension problems – so it’s an exciting result." (9 seconds)

More exercise is even better.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: May, 30 2007