from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0415exercise15.html

Moderate exercise not enough
Go for vigorous, new study urges

Emma Ross
Associated Press
Apr. 15, 2003 12:00 AM

A half-hour brisk walk every day may make you feel better, but it is not enough to ward off premature death from heart trouble, new research suggests.

A study published this week in Heart, a British medical journal, said that only vigorous exercise, such as jogging, hiking, climbing stairs, racket sports and swimming, seems to help lower the risk of early death from heart disease.

Official government recommendations in the United States and elsewhere say 30 minutes of moderate activity every day, such as brisk walking, is sufficient for heart health. A major World Health Organization consensus report published last month reached the same conclusion.

However, the latest study, conducted by scientists at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said that activities considered to provide mild exercise, such as walking, bowling and sailing, as well as pursuits of moderate intensity, such as golfing, dancing and brisk walking, did not lower the risk of early death among those British men followed for a decade.

The Belfast study involved 1,975 men who had no evidence of heart disease and were ages 49 to 64 when they entered the study. They each filled out an exercise questionnaire that estimated how many calories they burned each day through exercise in their spare time.

Those who did the most exercise were 40 percent less likely to die than those who did the least, the researchers reported.