Middle-aged adults who walk on a regular basis and work in the garden are much less likely to die in the next eight years than their couch potato counterparts, even if they are at high risk for heart attack or stroke.

Researchers reporting in the Nov. issue of the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise have found that physically active Fifty and early Sixty year olds are 35% less likely to suffer an early death than those who were sedentary.

The reduction was even more pronounced in smokers and patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) factors, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. People in that group who exercise regularly cut their risk of early death by 45%.

The participants were also grouped into having a low, medium, high risk of heart disease. This was based on the numbers of medical conditions or lifestyle habits each patient had, such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, a history of heart disease, or a history of stroke. People with 2 or more of these were considered to be at high risk of heart disease.

"We found that across all ranges of cardiovascular risk, everybody got a benefit from regular activity, but the biggest absolute benefit, the biggest reduction in death, was among high-risk people," lead researcher Caroline Richardson, MD, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan, says in a news release.