When unstable plaques break off, a blood clot can form around them, blocking the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart. But experts thought that perhaps the plaques in highly fit folk were different to those in sedentary people, the group most likely to have a buildup<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201dThere was a lot of speculation that \u2018well, these are athletes, we think they have lower risk of heart attack. There must be something special about their plaque\u2019,\u201d says Professor Jason Kovacic, director and chief executive of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.<\/p>\n That was until the publication of this new paper.<\/p>\n There is no such thing as a benign level of plaque, a study has found.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Finding the sweet spot<\/p>\n For the study, researchers from the University of Texas and the Cooper Centre took more than 26,000 adults (72 per cent of them men) in their 50s and divided them into groups based on physical activity.<\/p>\n The least active group did about 30 minutes a week, the moderate group did between 2\u00bd and five hours a week, while the high-volume group averaged 10\u00bd hours a week.<\/p>\n Following up 20 years later, they found moderate exercisers had the lowest risk of cardiovascular events. The low- and high-volume groups, however, had similar levels of coronary artery disease.<\/p>\n Additionally, 34.5 per cent of the most active participants and 28.5 per cent of the least active had high coronary calcification scores, correlating with a greater likelihood of coronary artery disease, regardless of whether they were active or not.<\/p>\n \u201cThis suggests that the coronary artery calcification observed in active individuals is not benign and has the same clinical significance as subclinical atherosclerosis in less active subjects,\u201d wrote Paul Thompson, chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital, in an editorial about the paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n Being fit and lean, having low cholesterol and low blood pressure doesn\u2019t seem to compensate for having a high coronary artery calcification score, adds honorary professor Kieran Fallon of the Australian National University: \u201cThe public health recommendation is … a moderate level of physical activity is probably best for cardiac health.\u201d<\/p>\n And while the most active group had the lowest overall mortality, they did not split the group into those with high and low calcification scores. If exercising a lot doesn\u2019t affect your heart health, then it is associated with greater risk reduction<\/a> across a range of chronic diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cI would underscore \u2026 that no one here is saying anybody should stop exercising,\u201d Kovacic stresses. \u201cAnd no one is saying three to five hours a week isn\u2019t a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/55c26a7d7da8bf9b4835e6a18cdc5bf7c73f6eba.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n