A study, described as the first to quantify the specific amounts of physical activity required to lower the risk of coronary heart disease, has shown that even light exercise reduces the risk of suffering heart disease.

A team of specialists, led by Jacob Sattelmair from the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School pf Public Health, examined 3,000 studies of physical activity and heart disease.

The results, published in the August issue of Circulation, the journal for the American Heart Association, shows that while even small amounts of physical activity will help avoid heart complications, the benefit increases as the amount of activity increases.

Those who reached the recommended 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week had a 20 per cent lower risk.

At higher levels of physical activity, relative risks were modestly lower.

Even people who were physically active at levels lower than the minimum recommended amount - but still exercised regularly - also had significantly lower risk of coronary heart disease.

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