By Kennedy Shelley
Women ought to be thinking about some new hobbies, especially if your idea of a good time is watching a movie.
A new study shows that women who make a hobby out of sports have much better blood work than those who want to sit during their hobby time.
Good hobbies seem to have two things in common, they create a community (bonding with other people) and they get you moving.
This seems to be especially important in postmenopausal women.
Frontiers in Endocrinology journal recently published a study from Gerontology Research Center at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.
While this may seem like radical common sense, it’s amazing just how profound the effect of active hobbying is on your heart health.
Heart disease is the leading killer of women.
Ignoring the warning signs and not taking action in middle age leads to premature death (see this article in Freedom Health News about how to set up healthy aging in your 50s).
Women’s risk of cardiovascular disease is really set up following menopause according to the researchers.
She based this off of looking at the blood fat (lipid) profile of the women in the study.
The lead author, Sira Karvinen, said “unfavorable changes in lipid metabolism leading to an increased likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome and [cardiovascular disease].”
The study looked at 193 women and their hobbies.
Dr. Matthew Jergenson, from the University of Minnesota Medical School goes even further:
“It is well known that physical activity has health benefits, yet it is less clear to what extent physical activity can prevent the negative changes seen in blood lipid profiles during the menopausal transition.”
“The present study,” he adds, “examined menopausal women in the city of Jyväskylä, Finland, to explore the role of leisure time physical activity on [cardiovascular] risk factors.”
It’s possible to get exercise doing work around the house and yard, but they went further to see what people were passionate about, i.e. hobbies.
Active leisure time hobbies led to the best lipid profiles.
This does not mean that women are out of the woods, just by picking activities hobbies. Your risk of heart disease still increases according to your blood work, but it is better when you have active hobbies.
This study again pointed out the importance of staying active, when traditionally people are in middle age they start to take it easy. That seems to be a dangerous thing to do.
Because this study was done in Finland, the subjects were overwhelmingly white and middle class, but it is a major piece of motivation for some to get active.
And have fun and do stuff with other people.
It will significantly increase the chances that you will stick to a more active lifestyle hobby and will increase the positive health effects.
Withdrawal from a community is a major danger of increased heart attack risk.
It doesn’t take much, just finding some friends to do things with is enough to get real benefits that will not only lengthen your life, but also improve the quality of it.
