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Men may need to exert double the amount of effort as women to fend off heart disease.
That’s according to new research from China that found men need twice as much exercise as women to lower their risk.
The study, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, analyzed data from more than 85,000 participants in the U.K. Biobank to pinpoint gender differences regarding physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease (also known as coronary artery disease).
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Data was pulled from wearable accelerometers, like smartwatches, for a defined period to measure the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
The participants, who did not have coronary heart disease at the start of the study, were monitored for nearly eight years to determine how many developed heart disease and how many died from it.
The average age for the incidence study was about 61 years and 57.3% were women. The mortality study had an average age of about 66 and 30% were women.
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After adjusting for other heart disease risk factors, like BMI (body mass index) and smoking, the researchers found a “notable” difference between men and women.
Specifically, they discovered that women experienced lower risk levels with half the minutes of activity as men.
In terms of developing heart disease, an extra 30 minutes of exercise per week was linked to a 2.9% lower risk in females and a 1.9% lower risk in men.
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Meeting the standard 150 minutes per week of recommended exercise lowered the women’s incidence risk by 22%, while men’s risk was lowered by 17%.
A further extended workout regimen of 300 minutes, or five hours, per week reduced the risk by 21% for females and only 11% for men.
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For about a 30% reduction in coronary heart disease incidence risk, women need about 250 minutes of exercise per week, while men need about 530 minutes, according to the researchers.
When it comes to mortality from heart disease, sticking to 150 minutes of exercise per week reduced women’s risk by a whopping 70%, and only lowered men’s risk by 19%.
To reduce coronary heart disease mortality by 30%, women need about 51 minutes of exercise per week and men need about 85 minutes.
The researchers commented in the study that these findings “underscore the value of sex-specific tailored coronary heart disease prevention strategies using wearable devices, which may help bridge the ‘gender gap’ by motivating females to engage in physical activity.”
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Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel spoke about the study on “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday.
“I can tell you, having been married for almost 30 years, that women are better than men. There’s no question about it,” he said. “Physiologically, spiritually, women are superior.”
Siegel noted that men have higher levels of testosterone, which is “bad for cholesterol,” and tend to build up fat “in the wrong places” in the gut, leading to inflammation.
“We smoke more, we drink more, we don’t exercise as much,” Siegel said about men in general. “All of that puts us at risk for heart disease.”
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According to the doctor, women “start to catch up” with increased risk after menopause, although it “takes a long time.”
“With all these risks, [men] need the exercise way more than women do to make up for it,” Siegel added.
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