TUESDAY, Nov. 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A brisk walk or even housecleaning might help folks at risk lower their odds for the dangerous heart arrhythmia known as atrial fibrillation, new research shows.
“Our findings make clear that you do not need to start running marathons to help prevent atrial fibrillation and other forms of heart disease,” said study senior author Dr. Sean Heffron, a preventive cardiologist at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
“Just keeping moderately active can, over time, add up to major benefits for maintaining a healthy heart,” he said in an NYU news release.
The study is slated to be presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA) in Chicago.
Atrial fibrillation, commonly known as A-fib, occurs when the heart's upper chambers (atria) beat erratically. Over time, this can greatly raise a person's odds for stroke and heart failure.
Could exercise help lower that risk?
To find out, Heffron's team looked at a year's worth of daily activity data from more than 6,000 Fitbit users across the United States and compared that to medical records.
They found that folks who at least matched AHA exercise recommendations -- 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week -- had a 60% lower risk of developing A-fib over time compared to those who didn't.
They noted that "moderate exercise" can mean brisk walks or even housecleaning, while "vigorous" workouts can mean jogging or swimming laps.
Benefits increased with more exercise: For example, folks who had more than five hours of exercise per week saw their A-fib risk drop by 65%.
A lot of the Fitbit users in the study were highly educated white women, so it's not clear how the findings might extend to other groups, or the role that other factors (such as income and education) might play in reducing A-fib risk, the researchers said.
Next up for the NYU research team: Using Fitbit data to see whether working out in the morning or at night is better for heart health.
Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
Find out more about A-fib at the American College of Cardiology.
SOURCE: NYU Langone Health, news release, Nov. 11, 2024
