Exercise May Cut Risk of 13 Cancers: Study
Mar 29, 2018

Tracy Campbell
Core Spirit member since Dec 24, 2020
Reading time 3 min.

Exercise may significantly reduce your risk for many types of cancer, including some of the most lethal forms of the disease, a large review suggests.

Working out for even a couple of hours a week appears to shrink the risk of breast, colon and lung cancer, said researchers who looked at 1.4 million adults.

“Those are three of the four major cancers that affect Americans today,” said Marilie Gammon. She is a professor of epidemiology with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health.

And fitness buffs, take heart – your cancer risk appears to continue to decline as you rack up hours of physical activity, with no apparent upper plateau, said study lead author Steven Moore, an investigator with the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

“The more activity, the more the benefit,” Moore said. “As people did more, their risk continued to lower.”

It should be noted, however, that the study only found an association between exercise and reduced cancer risk; it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

In the study, regular exercise wound up being linked to a reduced risk of 13 cancers in all, the researchers said. The others were leukemia, myeloma and cancers of the esophagus, liver, kidney, stomach, endometrium, rectum, bladder, and head and neck.

Current federal guidelines for exercise – 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity – are aimed at heart health but also serve well for cancer prevention, Moore said.

Moderate-intensity exercise involves pursuits such as brisk walking or tennis, while vigorous intensity exercise involves heart-pumping activities such as jogging or swimming laps, according to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

For this study, Moore and his colleagues focused on leisure-time physical activity performed outside work or household chores. “This is voluntary physical activity typically done to improve health,” he said.

About half of all American adults don’t meet the federal minimum recommendation for exercise, the study authors said in background information.

Prior research has linked exercise to reduced risk of breast and colon cancer, but no study has attempted to look at the effect of physical activity on many different types of cancer, Moore said.

The researchers pooled data from 12 U.S. and European studies to create a database of 1.4 million adults, aged 19 to 98. They then examined whether self-reported physical activity made a difference in risk of 26 cancers.

Exercise was associated with a reduced risk for half of the cancers considered by the investigators, and that reduction remained significant for nearly all, even after accounting for factors such as obesity and smoking history.

Overall, a higher level of physical activity was associated with a 7 percent lower risk of total cancer, the researchers reported.

The range of reduced risk ran from 42 percent for esophageal cancer to 10 percent for breast cancer, the study authors said. For colon and lung cancer, risk was lowered 16 percent and 26 percent, respectively, the findings suggested.

“This suggests that physical activity may have a role to play in population-wide cancer prevention efforts,” Moore said.

The findings were published online May 16 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

No one is certain why exercise seems to help fend off cancer, Moore and Gammon said, but there are some leading theories.

Physical activity reduces levels of hormones, such as estrogen, that have been linked to different cancers, and helps control levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor, Moore said.

People who work out also tend to have lower levels of inflammation, Moore said. Their cells appear to be subject to less oxidative stress, and are more capable of repairing damaged DNA that might cause cancer, said Gammon, co-author of an editorial accompanying the study.

Gammon said she was most pleased with the 42 percent risk reduction found in esophageal cancer.

“That’s pretty amazing, because it’s a very deadly tumor,” she said. “I think the average length of survival is 11 to 12 months after you’re diagnosed.”

Other very deadly cancers that appear to become less common with exercise include those of the liver, stomach, kidney, and head and neck, Gammon said.

“Having a strategy to help reduce risk of those cancers is very good, because your outlook is not optimal once you’re diagnosed,” she said.

by Dennis Thompson For WebMd

Tracy Campbell

Leave your comments / questions for this practitioner

To write a comment please
or
Services
Category filter
Concern filter
Type filter
Sort
 

All categories

Wellness Coaching
$20 USD
consultation
50 & Beyond Health & Wellbeing Discovery Session

Join me for a comprehensive look into what it will take to stay physically and mentally strong as you move through the second half of your life.

We all want to age without the fear of suffering from a chronic illness and still have the energy and strength to live the life we want.

The number one reason people fail to stay healthy as they age is the inability to consistently follow the right habits and behaviours for health transformation.

Through working with 1000's of clients over the last 20 years, I have been able to develop a coaching program that not only looks at nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management but also how to develop the right mindset needed to succeed.

Having a plan is not as important as having the ability to implement it.

If you are someone who struggles to follow healthy habits consistently. Or you are someone who wants to learn more about what they need to do personally to avoid chronic illness. Then my 30-minute Discovery Session is ideal for you.

From the 30 minutes we spend together, we will go through in specific detail what it is you can do today when it comes to what to eat, how to get the most from exercise, how to develop a powerful sleep routine and how to build a healthy environment needed to live a healthy life.

And with over 20 years of coaching experience in the health & wellness industry, I have witnessed firsthand what it takes to consistently follow the right habits and behaviours for lasting change.

Expect to hear things that will challenge what you have always been told about nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management. As someone who is over 50 and is stronger, fitter and healthier than I was in my 20s, 30s, & 40s, I am well-placed to know what works and doesn't as we move through this period of our lives.

Chris Deavin
Cognitive Psychology
$99 USD
consultation
Check Your Vibes! Find out how much Positive and Negative energy you have!

The Energy Leadership™ Index (ELI) assessment is the proprietary, research-backed assessment tool, created by iPEC, that takes something abstract, like the way a person views the world, and turns it into something tangible—a metric that you can see and feel and even reevaluate in the future.

You’ve probably taken personality tests, like Myers Briggs, DiSC, and Enneagram, but this is different. And transformational.

The ELI is an attitudinal assessment tool that captures how an individual currently perceives and approaches work and life. This means that you learn to make change happen in real-time when you encounter a moment of self-doubt, fear, or frustration.

With the awareness and insights gained through the Energy Leadership Index debrief, you have the opportunity to reshape your attitudes and worldview and transform your life into the one you envision.

Our worldview is the result of a combination of many different aspects: our past experiences, level of consciousness, perception of situations. Each of us has a unique combination of all seven levels of energy which, in turn, creates your typical viewpoints, perceptions, and beliefs about life.

Learning about your energetic makeup can help you to reframe your perspective, shift your consciousness, and increase your energy level as a result. Discover your unique energetic makeup by taking an ELI Assessment!

This comes with an hour debrief - As an FYI the price is what it is because there is a price to me- I have to pay the institution for the assessment and the scoring. Then I'll walk you thorugh your results.

David Jacks
Emotional Stress Release
$80 USD
healing session
Oxygen to the rescue! Great for Mental Health, Brain Injury, Detox, inflammation

Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers are one of the oldest and safest treatments available. Oxygen detoxifies and heals. I was introduced to Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers (HBOC) by Dr. Amen, a world reknown Psychiatrist. Oxygen is great for ADD, Mood Disorders, Trauma, Insomnia, Brain injuries, Wound healing and Inflammation.

This is from Dr. Amen's Clinic: "If you are struggling with a mental health condition, recovering from a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI), or dealing with cognitive or memory problems, hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be for you. People all over the world have reported recovering from a variety of conditions and experiencing dramatic improvements with this type of popular therapy."

Most people will feel a difference off of one treatment, especially if you typically have trouble sleeping. You will sleep like a rock.

David Jacks
Bach flower therapy
$35 USD
consultation
BACH FLOWER STANDALONE BOTTLE SERVICE

**This type of service is ONLY for clients who already know the remedies they want to take.

The standalone treatment bottle service is offered to US residents only .**

Iose Cocuzza, NC, CGP, BFRP

Related Articles

View All
Registered individuals enjoy all the possibilities of Core Spirit.