Published: Feb 13, 2014 | Updated: Feb 13, 2014
By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Action Points
- Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Moderate physical activity confers a significant reduction in risk for ischemic stroke in women and may modify the risk associated with hormone therapy.
Exercise may moderately shave off some of the increased risk of hormone therapy, researchers found.
In an analysis of data from the California Teachers Study, women taking hormones had a 42% increased risk of stroke — but that fell to a 30% greater risk if they exercised at least 3.5 hours per week, according to Sophia Wang, PhD, of the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., and colleagues.
They reported their findings at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in San Diego.
Wang and colleagues looked at data on 133,479 women enrolled in the California Teachers Study between 1995 and 2010.
They found that 3.5 to 5 hours per week of moderate-intensity activity, such as walking or playing tennis, reduced stroke risk by about 20% in the entire cohort (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.71-0.98).
More strenuous activity such as running didn’t further reduce that risk, and hovered around a 20% reduction for those doing at least 3.5 hours per week (RR 0.82).
“Moderate activity, such as brisk walking, appears to be ideal in this scenario,” Wang said in a statement.
Women currently on hormone therapy had a 42% greater risk of stroke — but this appeared to be mitigated by doing at least 3.5 hours per week of exercise, be it moderate or strenuous, the researchers found.
Those who met that goal had only a 30% increased risk of stroke — while those who didn’t work out at all had about a 60% increased risk.
Wang said this level of protection is similar to that seen for the general population in the study.
She noted that the risks of hormone therapy also diminished once women stopped using the drugs, as has been seen in other trials.
Although former hormone users still had about a 16% increased risk of stroke, the risk essentially vanished among those who exercised for at least 3.5 hours per week, the researchers reported.
“The effects of physical activity and hormone therapy appear immediate, and the benefits of physical activity are consistent in premenopausal and postmenopausal women,” Wang said in the statement, adding that women should incorporate some type of physical activity into their daily routine.
“You don’t have to do an extreme boot camp,” she said. “The types of activities we’re talking about are accessible to most of the population.”
The researchers disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.
Primary source: International Stroke Conference
Source reference: Wang S, et al “Physical activity reduces stroke risk among women in the California Teachers Study Cohort” ISC 2014; Abstract TMP67.