LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "These leisure-time activities represent moderate intensity exercise that is important to health," lead author Mark Hamer, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London says.

"It is especially important for older people to be physically active because it contributes to successful aging," he added.

Hamer say that while a number of studies show physical activity protects the heart and cardiovascular system by influencing how the body deals with inflammation, there isn't enough evidence to confirm whether this might be true of the longer term.

Researchers then looked at what happened to the link between inflammation and exercise in a very large group over ten years.

Scientists examined data on 4,289 people of average age 49 from the Whitehall II study, which started in 1985 with more than 10,000 participating British civil servants to look the effects of lifestyle and occupation on heart health.

The participants answered questionnaires that asked them about their lifestyle, including any physical activity, ranging from intense such as demanding sports and workouts, to leisure and home pursuits such as brisk walking, cycling, gardening, housework and home maintenance.

The researchers set the baseline of their study at 1991, with a follow up of 11 years later, in 2002.

The results showed that:

-- 49 percent of the participants met the guideline amount of exercise recommended for heart health (a minimum of 2.5 hours per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity) throughout the study period.

-- Participants who were physically active at baseline also had lower levels of the inflammatory markers.

-- And, this difference remained stable over time.

In contrast to test subjects who rarely met the guideline level of recommended physical activity, the ones who consistently met it showed lower levels of both inflammatory markers at follow up.

Compared to participants who did not change their activity level over the study period, those who increased it, had lower levels of both inflammatory markers at follow up.

"Inflammatory markers are important because we have shown they are a key mechanism explaining the link between physical activity and the lower risk of heart disease."

"The people who benefited the most from this study were the ones that remained physically active," he added.

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