Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Vigorous exercise key to reduce childhood heart risk

An Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine study aimed to determine the association between physical activity intensities and cardiometabolic risk factors in a sample of 605 youths aged 9 to 17 years. Body mass index score, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure decreased and cardiorespiratory stamina increased. Achieving more than 7 minutes of vigorous PA daily was associated with a reduced ratio of overweight status and elevated systolic blood pressure. The odds of overweight status and elevated blood pressure decreased with increasing time and intensity of PA. Only vigorous PA was consistently associated with lower levels of all factors, underscoring the importance of vigorous PA in guidelines for children and adolescents.

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