THIS IS NOT MUCH OF A SURPRISE: Men who exercise may delay age-related high cholesterol.

Men who get plenty of aerobic exercise may delay the onset of age-related high cholesterol, potentially lowering their risk for heart disease, a new study suggests.

Researchers followed thousands of men over several decades, periodically drawing blood to test their cholesterol and then making them run on treadmills to measure their cardiorespiratory fitness. Men who could run longer and faster – signs that their bodies more easily deliver oxygen to muscles – also had lower cholesterol.

“The benefits of physical fitness in improving cholesterol levels are greatest in young to middle-age adults and tend to decrease gradually with older age,” said Dr. Usman Baber, a cardiovascular researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

“These findings should reinforce the importance of young to middle-age men incorporating regular aerobic exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle,” Baber, co-author of an editorial accompanying the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, said in an email to Reuters Health.

I’d have been interested to see a comparison between aerobic exercise and strength training.