Older women respond well to exercise

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Postmenopausal women respond much like younger women to regular, vigorous exercise, U.S. researchers found.

Study leader and exercise physiologist George Brooks of the University of California at Berkeley said despite changes in hormones and changes in body composition, postmenopausal women can make significant changes in their cardiovascular fitness without going on extreme diets.

The study involved 10 healthy but sedentary women, averaging 55 years of age, who participated in endurance training on an exercise bike for one hour, five days a week, at 65 percent of maximum lung capacity.

The study, published in the journal Metabolism -- Clinical and Experimental, found participants increased their body's capacity to consume and use oxygen by an average of 16 percent and dropped their resting heart rates by an average of four beats per minute.

Brooks said that after the age of 30, people lose the capacity to consume and use oxygen at about 1 percent per year, but women in the study had the cardiovascular and metabolic capabilities of women 16 years younger.