Study Reveals Easy Way to Reduce Risk of 7 Cancers

Food Health Nature Wellness

A few years ago, I talked to a health professional about the increased trend in a number of health conditions and how they appear to coincide with the technological developments of the past few decades.

When I was younger, yes, there was heart disease, diabetes and cancer, but they weren’t as prevalent as they are today. The health professional told me that back then, most people were a lot more active than they are today. Kids played outside, running, climbing and just being more physically active. Today, there are so many electronic devices that the majority of young people no longer play outside. They have traded their healthier active lives for more sedentary electronic lives, resulting in less exercise and more health issues. Additionally, many schools have been reducing the emphasis on physical education classes, largely due to the costs and financial issues facing many schools.

With today’s technological sedentary lifestyle, a number of cancers have been increasing just as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, strokes and more. We constantly hear that we need more exercise to help reduce the risk of these often deadly conditions and disease, but just how much exercise does it take to help prevent some cancers?

With so many people making their annual New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and exercise more, the following study just may help some of you make your decision and give you motivation to continue beyond a few weeks:

PURPOSE

To determine whether recommended amounts of leisure-time physical activity (ie, 7.5-15 metabolic equivalent task [MET] hours/week) are associated with lower cancer risk, describe the shape of the dose-response relationship, and explore associations with moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity…

RESULTS

A total of 755,459 participants (median age, 62 years [range, 32-91 years]; 53% female) were followed for 10.1 years, and 50,620 incident cancers accrued. Engagement in recommended amounts of activity (7.5-15 MET hours/week) was associated with a statistically significant lower risk of 7 of the 15 cancer types studied, including colon (8%-14% lower risk in men), breast (6%-10% lower risk), endometrial (10%-18% lower risk), kidney (11%-17% lower risk), myeloma (14%-19% lower risk), liver (18%-27% lower risk), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (11%-18% lower risk in women). The dose response was linear in shape for half of the associations and nonlinear for the others. Results for moderate- and vigorous-intensity leisure-time physical activity were mixed. Adjustment for body mass index eliminated the association with endometrial cancer but had limited effect on other cancer types.

CONCLUSION

Health care providers, fitness professionals, and public health practitioners should encourage adults to adopt and maintain physical activity at recommended levels to lower risks of multiple cancers.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to be more physically active and if necessary, need to schedule regular exercise times and establish a routine. Just think, 20 minutes a day of healthy exercise may add years to your life. Twenty minutes seems like a small price to pay for a longer life. Think about it.

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