Exercise lowers the risk of cancer

A recent study shows that exercise lowers the risk of several forms of cancer, as well as heart disease and diabetes. Housework may be a hated chore but it can reduce the risk of a certain form of uterine cancer. Breast cancer patients who exercise regularly are more likely to survive the disease. Researchers from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, conducted a study and found that exercise in adulthood was associated with nearly a 20 percent reduction in endometrial cancer (a cancer of the lining of the uterus) risk. The study was conducted at the Shanghai Cancer Institute in China where it was found that walking and household chores reduced the risk of endometrial cancer by as much as 40 percent. The study involved 974 women in Shanghai aged 30 to 69 who were compared to the women of a similar age. The women were asked about their current exercise regime as well as how much they exercised as teen-agers. Women who walked more than 60 minutes a day and who did four or more hours of housework a day had a 30 percent lower risk of endometrial cancer. The researchers also accumulated strong evidence that an active lifestyle can reduce the risk of colon and breast cancer. Now they are trying to find evidence that physical activity may also reduce the risk of endometrial cancer.
In a second study on breast cancer the researchers surveyed 1,459 breast cancer patients and 1,556 women without breast cancer. The heavier women were always at higher risk. As with endometrial cancer, exercise seemed to offset some of the increased risk caused by being fat. The more the women exercised, the better their chances of beating the breast cancer. Women who walked an hour a week or did the equivalent were 19 percent less likely to die and women who managed three hours a week were 54 percent less likely to die of breast cancer.

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