Women: To Clear Coronary Artery Plaque, Run Marathons

Here’s the strange part: a recent study a elite male marathoners found that they actually have more coronary artery plaque–a bad thing–than couch potatoes had. Curious about the paradox, researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute set out to learn if the same was true for women. HealthDay reports that when the researchers examined coronary artery plaque in 25 female marathoners and 28 age-matched sedentary women, they found 28 coronary plaque lesions in 14 of the sedentary women and in five of the marathoners. Overall, the mean plaque volume was about 170 in the sedentary women and 96 in the marathoners and the average percent stenosis (narrowing of the arteries) was 28 percent in the sedentary women and 10 percent in the marathoners. So the answer is: what is strange and true for men, is not strange and true for women. Elite female marathon runners have less coronary artery plaque than their male counterparts and sedentary women. Read more in HealthDay.