{"id":685507,"date":"2026-03-27T12:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/685507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T12:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:34:16","slug":"experts-pinpoint-how-much-exercise-middle-aged-women-need-to-do-every-week-to-slash-their-risk-of-premature-death-by-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/685507\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts pinpoint how much exercise middle-aged women need to do every week to slash their risk of premature death by half"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CIARAN FOREMAN, REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 06:35 EDT, 27 March 2026 | Updated: 07:01 EDT, 27 March 2026 <\/p>\n

Middle-aged women who exercise regularly could have a substantially lower risk of early death than those who do not, a study has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers in Australia found that women who consistently met the weekly recommended amount of 150 minutes of exercise – around two-and-a-half hours – had around half the risk of death compared to those who were inactive.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, analysed data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 enrolled on the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.<\/p>\n

The women were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, giving researchers data on how often they met recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous exercise.<\/p>\n

Official NHS<\/a> guidance says moderate activity includes a brisk walk, riding a bike, and hiking, meanwhile vigorous activities include running, swimming and aerobics.<\/p>\n

Women who consistently met the recommendations had a death rate of 5.3 per cent over the study period, compared with 10.4 per cent among those who did not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Binh Nguyen, the study lead from the University of Sydney, said: ‘Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Our study shows that maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death.’<\/p>\n

\"Middle-aged <\/p>\n

Middle-aged women who exercise regularly could have a substantially lower risk of early death than those who do not, a study has found\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study suggested a similar effect of exercise on reducing risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, though the authors noted that the results were ‘more uncertain and less conclusive’.<\/p>\n

However, the research team did state that their study overall ‘supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife provides health benefits’.<\/p>\n

They added: ‘Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout mid-age to derive these benefits.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the study was observational, the researchers cannot prove that exercising directly caused the difference in mortality.<\/p>\n

The study’s limitations also included its reliance on self-reported physical activity and stressed that the findings may not be applicable to all middle-aged Australian women.<\/p>\n

The NHS say adults should do ‘some type of physical activity every day’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Exercise just once or twice a week can reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke,’ their official guidance reads.<\/p>\n

It comes as a separate study revealed that just half an hour of walking a day could slash younger women’s breast cancer<\/a> risk.<\/p>\n

The findings come from a study examining how aerobic exercise affects proteins in the blood known to have cancer-fighting properties.<\/p>\n

While breast cancer is more common after the menopause<\/a>, it can be more aggressive and harder to treat in younger women \u2013 prompting scientists to look for ways to prevent the disease in this group.<\/p>\n

Experts from R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University in Latvia<\/a> studied 18 healthy pre-menopausal women aged around 41, tracking how levels of six anti-cancer biomarkers changed after exercise.<\/p>\n

These included myokines \u2013 proteins released by muscles during physical activity that are thought to play a role in suppressing tumour growth.<\/p>\n

They found that even walking on a treadmill at low intensity for just 30 minutes triggered changes in the blood that slowed the proliferation of cancer cells.<\/p>\n

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