Workouts may curb cholesterol

The study is one of the first to find a link between exercise and significant decreases in LDL, or “bad”, cholesterol, said the lead author, Keri L Monda, a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina. The study did not find the decreases in men, however.

Each hour of moderate exercise or half-hour of vigorous activity was associated with a decrease of almost 4 milligrams per decilitre of LDL cholesterol in white women, and more than 10 milligrams for black women. And for women past menopause, the benefits were even greater: 5.9 milligrams for whites and 14.68 for blacks.

The study appears in the August issue of The Journal of Lipid Research. Monda cautioned that the findings were new, and must be replicated. But she suggested that other studies could have missed the association if they did not include large numbers of women and minorities.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re premenopausal or postmenopausal,” she said. “It’s important to exercise, and you don’t have to do that much to get systemwide benefits.”

Killer cows
The image of cows as placid, gentle creatures is a city slicker’s fantasy, judging from an article, published on Friday by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, reporting that about 20 people a year are killed by cows in the United States. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans — ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head — resulting in fatal injuries to the head and chest.