Adults with an irregular heartbeat condition called atrial fibrillation, or AFib can lower their risk of stroke and death simply by staying physically active, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers in Norway tracked more than 87,000 adults for about 15 years, pulling data from national health registries to study links between exercise, AFib, stroke and death. More than 6,500 participants in the study had AFib, a condition that causes the heart’s upper chambers to quiver or beat irregularly and can lead to blood clots and stroke.
Compared with inactive adults, those with low, moderate or high activity levels had a 9%, 19% and 18% lower risk of stroke, respectively. Death risk from any cause also dropped, falling 11%, 18% and 22% for low, moderate and high activity levels. Those benefits held steady whether or not a person had AFib, suggesting the condition doesn’t change how exercise protects the body.
For people with AFib specifically, staying active was linked to living half a year to more than a year longer than those who stayed inactive.
Johansen, a researcher at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, said he hopes the results push doctors and patients to recognize that even small amounts of movement help. He added that health benefits can start at any point someone decides to get active, and some exercise always beats none.
The study sorted participants into four activity groups based on how often, how long and how intensely they exercised. People who developed AFib during the study were moved into the AFib group to keep results accurate.
