Intense Exercise Cuts Stroke Risks
WHITFIELD: All right, another look at our top story. Tiger Woods making a break with the game that he lovers, at least for now. As rumoring swirl about the golfer's infidelity, he's doing his best to keep his distance from it and try to save his marriage. And one of his major sponsors is distancing itself from him. Gillette plans to limit Woods' role in its advertising. The company says, "in the midst of a difficult and unfortunate situation, we respect the action Tiger is taking to restore the trust of his family, friends and fans. We fully support him stepping back from his professional career and taking the time he needs to do what matters most." And it goes on to say, "we wish him and his family the best." That statement coming from Gillette. All right, Texas voters are going to the polls for a runoff mayoral election today. Houston could become the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor. Polls show city controller Annise Parker, who is a lesbian, leading over her challenger and former city attorney Gene Locke. Well, can the intensity of your exercise routine protect your health? A new study examined the effects of workouts on lowering the risks of strokes. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the surprising findings in today's "Fit Nation" segment.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it all depends on what your goals are certainly when it comes to exercise. But this is a study that's caught a lot of people's attention. What drives the most benefit in terms of reducing risk of stroke? This is what researchers are trying to figure out. They studied over 3,000 people average age 69, followed them along for 10 year. All from the New York area. And what they found was that it really seemed to benefit men who did moderate to higher intensity exercise. If did you that, you got about a 63 percent risk reduction in stroke overall over that time period. Women, for some reason, didn't seem to get the same benefits. And either party, men or women, who did light exercise didn't seem to get much benefit in terms of stroke reduction overall. Again, we're just talking about a very specific thing here. Reducing the risk of stroke. There's obviously lots of good reasons to exercise for both men and women at any age. In case you're curious, a lot of people are, when it comes to moderate or high intensity exercise, what they're talking about specifically is things like swimming, jogging, tennis, about 20 to 40 minutes a day and doing it three to five or most days of the week. Again, though, the message should not be that exercise is not beneficial to women at any given age. As to why this might be, it's really unclear why men get benefit and women don't. If you look at the causes of stroke or the things that can increase your risk, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, but also something known as inflammation. Inflammation can be a big culprit here. And one of the theories is that men seem to be able to decrease their inflammation more so than women when they do exercise. So that could possibly reduce their risk of stroke. But, again, a lot more research needing to be done on that. We're also inviting any of you at home to help us practice what we preach. We're creating something called the "Fit Nation Challenge." You can go to cnn.com/fitnation. We're going to invite five viewers from around the country to join us -- to join us for the New York City Triathlon, which is a mile swim, 26 mile bike, a 10k run. If you are chosen, we'll send trainers to your area, help you train, invite you out to New York and do the race with us, again, helping us practice what we preach, but also giving us a glimpse into your own workout routine, what works, what doesn't and what the country can learn from you. So, again, cnn.com/fitnation. It's going to be fun. I'm going to do it myself. Back to you for now.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Sanjay. He does everything. All right, Tiger Woods walking away from golf for now after admitting infidelity. Our legal guys will be weighing in on his potential legal troubles.