Regular Swimming Benefits Women's Health

A growing body of medical research suggests that regular swimming is particularly beneficial to women's health, possibly even reducing the risks of breast cancer, osteoporosis, and miscarriage. Phillip Whitten, author of The Complete Book of Swimming, indicates that swimming helps pregnant women exercise further into their terms due to the near-weightless environment, making them better conditioned for both delivery and recovery. In the same study, conducted by the Melpomene Institute of Minneapolis (Minn.), researchers concluded that women who swim suffered 75% fewer miscarriages or stillbirths than those who jogged or didn't exercise, Whitten notes.

A report in The New England Journal of Medicine stated that high levels of body fat increased the likelihood that women with a genetic risk of breast cancer would develop it. Women who swim regularly--which reduces body fat--were less likely to develop breast cancer. Physically active women also were two and, a half times less likely to develop cancer of the reproductive system, according to research conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health. One of the study's authors recommends swimming at least 30 minutes a day, three days a week.

Whitten points out that researchers have found that swimming can increase bone mass in older women'as much as weight-bearing exercise. Moreover, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association showed that younger women can strengthen their bones through exercise and calcium supplementation, even after the bones no longer are going through the lengthening process.

Source: USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 1999