Morning exercise lowers risk of heart disease and stroke: Study

San Francisco: Morning physical activity is associated with the lowest risk of heart disease and stroke, as per a new study.

According to the study, which was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the findings were consistent regardless of total daily activity.

“It is well established that exercise is good for heart health, and our study now indicates that morning activity seems to be most beneficial,” said study author Gali Albalak of Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands.

“The findings were particularly pronounced in women, and applied to both early birds and night owls,” she added.

The study used data from the UK Biobank (a large-scale biomedical database and research resource). It included 86,657 adults between the ages of 42 and 78 who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start. The average age was 62, and 58 per cent were women.

Over the course of six to eight years, 2,911 participants developed coronary artery disease, and 796 had a stroke, said the study.