Well shit, I biked to and from work 4 miles 9 months out of the year. I raced cars home, managed to have two accidents in those 25 years of biking. Didn't prevent plaque in my arteries. But I'm sure my cardiovascular fitness as a result of that allowed me to survive my stroke.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=169385&CultureCode=en
People who bike regularly, either for pleasure or as a way to
commute, appear to have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease,
according to two separate studies published simultaneously in the
American Heart Association’s journal Circulation and Journal of the
American Heart Association, the AHA/ASA’s Open Access Journal.
While structured cycling as part of a formal workout routine is
already known to guard against cardiovascular illness, little is known
about the effects of habitual biking done for leisure or as a way to
commute. Together, the findings from the newly published studies suggest
that leisure and commuter biking may be an important public health
strategy in large-scale efforts to reduce cardiovascular risk.
In the Circulation study, 45,000 Danish adults (aged 50 to 65) who
regularly biked for recreation or to commute had between 11 percent and
18 percent fewer heart attacks during a 20-year follow-up (1993-2013).
The analysis showed that as little as half an hour of biking per week
provided some protection against coronary artery disease. Additionally,
people who took up biking during the first five years the authors
followed them had about a 25 percent lower risk of developing heart
disease, compared with those who remained non-bikers in the subsequent
15-year period.
Researchers caution that their findings do not prove definitively
that riding a bike for leisure or to and from work can prevent heart
attacks. However, they say, the lower number of cardiovascular events
observed among those who biked on a regular basis is a strong indicator
that such activity can boost cardiovascular health.
“Finding time for exercise can be challenging for many people, so
clinicians working in the field of cardiovascular risk prevention should
consider promoting cycling as a mode of transportation,” said Anders
Grøntved, M.Sc., M.P.H., Ph.D., senior study author and associate
professor of physical activity epidemiology at the University of
Southern Denmark.
Researchers also tracked participants’ overall exercise habits,
activity levels and frequency of bicycle riding, along with heart
disease risk factors, such as blood pressure, weight, cholesterol,
smoking, diet and alcohol consumption. Participants were asked to
provide information about cycling habits at the onset of the study and
once more in five years.
In all, there were 2,892 heart attacks during the 20-year follow-up.
Researchers estimate that more than 7 percent of all heart attacks could
have been averted by taking up cycling and keeping it up on a regular
basis.
“Because recreational and commuter biking is an easy way to make
physical activity part of one’s routine in a non-structured and informal
fashion, based on the results, public health authorities, governments
and employers ought to consider initiatives that promote bicycle riding
as a way to support large-scale cardiovascular disease prevention
efforts,” said Kim Blond, M.Sc, lead author and research assistant at
the University of Southern Denmark.
The Journal of the American Heart Association study revealed that
middle-aged and older Swedish adults who biked to work were less likely
than non-bikers to be obese, have high cholesterol, high blood pressure
or pre-diabetes — all critical drivers of cardiovascular risk.
Researchers followed more than 20,000 people in their 40s, 50s and
60s over 10 years and monitored their commuting habits, weight,
cholesterol levels, blood glucose and blood pressure.
At the beginning of the study, active commuters (biked to work) were
15 percent less likely to be obese, 13 percent less likely have high
blood pressure, 15 percent less likely to have high cholesterol and 12
percent less likely to have pre-diabetes or diabetes, compared with
passive commuters (used public transportation or drove to work).
During a follow-up exam 10 years later, the portion of study
participants who switched from passive commuting to active commuting
also had an improved risk profile. They were less likely to be obese,
have diabetes, hypertension or elevated cholesterol, compared with
non-bikers.
Collectively, at the 10-year follow-up, those who maintained biking
or took up biking at some point had a 39-percent lower risk of obesity,
11 percent lower risk of high blood pressure, 20 percent lower risk of
high cholesterol and 18 percent lower diabetes risk.
“We found active commuting, which has the additional advantages of
being time-efficient, cheaper and environmentally friendly is also great
for your health,” said Paul Franks, Ph.D., senior study author,
professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Lund University in
Sweden and guest professor at Umeå University in Sweden. “The multiple
advantages of active commuting over structured exercise may help
clinicians convey a message that many patients will embrace more readily
than being told to join a gym, go for a jog or join a sports team.”
Researchers noted that there was no minimum amount of time or
distance required to reduce one’s risk, even though people who biked
longer or more often experienced small additional gains in risk
reduction.
Because the study was observational, it is difficult to establish a
cause-and-effect relationship between improved cardiovascular health and
commuter biking, but the findings do indicate a strong
cardio-protective effect from cycling.
Based on their findings, researchers also estimated that maintaining
biking habits or switching from passive commuting to biking may have
prevented 24 percent of obesity cases, 6 percent of hypertension
diagnoses, 13 percent of high cholesterol diagnoses, and 11 percent of
the cases of diabetes.
“The really good news here is that it’s never too late to benefit
from an active lifestyle,” Franks said. “People who switched from
passive to active commuting saw considerable gains in their
cardiovascular health.”
Co-authors of the Circulation study are Kim Blond, M.Sc.; Martin
Rasmussen, M.Sc.; Lars Østergaard, Ph.D.; Majken Jensen, PhD; Kim
Overvad, MD, PhD; and Anne Tjønneland, MD, DMSc.
Co-authors of the JAHA study are Anders Grøntved, M.Sc., M.P.H.,
Ph.D.; Lars Østergaard, Ph.D.; Robert Koivula, M.Sc; Frida Renström,
Ph.D; Ingegerd Johansson, D.D.Sc, Ph.D; Patrik Wennberg, M.D., Ph.D; and
Göran Hallmans, M.D., Ph.D.
The Circulation study was funded by the Danish Cancer Society, the
Lundbeck Foundation and the Danish Council for Independent Research.
The work described in the JAHA paper was funded by the Lundbeck
Foundation, the Danish Council for Independent Research, the Novo
Nordisk Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung
Foundation and the European Research Council.
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/recreational-commuter-biking-linked-to-lower-cardiovascular-disease-risk?preview=145ce6d0890e1db0781a6cccc44c0b3d
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