It's definitely good to start them early. A new study suggests that women who were active when they were still in their teens have a lesser risk of dying by the time they reach adulthood. The study was conducted by Nashville's Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center.
In a report by Reuters, teen exercise can have a positive impact on a woman's fight against cancer and a host of other diseases by the time they are young adults or even middle aged.
In this study, the team of researchers followed more than 70,000 women in China between 1996 and 2000. Heading the team was Wei Zhaeng. At the start of the research, their ages ranged from 40 to 70 years. More than 10 years after, at least 5,000 of these women had already died with around 1,500 due to cardiovascular disease and more than 2,000 from cancer.
However, after they considered other factors such as income and social status, they discovered that those women who had exercised when they were still in their adolescence had a lower chance of dying. Further, the mortality risk was down by 20% if these women continued exercising when they were already adults. When it comes to specific types of cancer, the reduction of risk can be around 16%.
The study also shares that it doesn't take one to be a teen athlete to enjoy the good benefit. One has to exercise at least 1.3 hours every week, although playing in a sports team has a specific risk reduction of 10% from all possible causes.
Although the study was conducted among Chinese women, the results may still resonate among women of other ethnicities.
The study, nevertheless, may have its limitations. For instance, it was conducted through self-reporting, the results of which can be subjected to errors and bias. However, the researchers believe the limitations do not reduce the fact that exercising early is great for any woman.
