Women who take brisk walks regularly have a low risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.
Women who take brisk walks regularly have a low risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.
There are many risk factors for breast cancer that women have no control over, such as family history or the age at which they begin menstruating. Physical activity is one of the few breast cancer risk factors that women can do something about. There is a growing body of research showing that very active women are less likely to develop breast cancer than their sedentary peers. But less is known about the effect of moderate exercise, and whether less active women who start exercising get similar benefits.
Previous studies about the benefits of exercise on breast cancer risk are also difficult to compare side-by-side.
Researchers reviewed data collected from 95,396 women who were followed for 20 years in America. Overall, five in 100 women got breast cancer over 20 years. At regular intervals, women reported how active they were, and the types of exercise they chose to do. It was found that women who scheduled at least an hour of brisk walking per day (or an equivalent amount of activity) were 15 percent less likely to get breast cancer than women who walked less than one hour per week. And those who got little exercise but boosted their activity after menopause were 10 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who stayed inactive.
Therefore regular exercise was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer even after removing the potential influence of drinking and weight. The researchers also looked at which activities such as swimming, hiking, or jogging were associated with the lowest risk, and found that brisk walking appeared to be the most protective against breast cancer. Hence, women don't need to engage in vigorous workouts to see a benefit - it's enough to simply walk at a brisk pace, roughly 5-7 km per hour.
However, it remains unclear how exercise protects against breast cancer. Research has shown that physical activity reduces oestrogen in the blood, which can affect breast cancer risk. But in this study, exercise also reduced the risk of breast cancers that were not influenced by oestrogen, suggesting there are other explanations. More research is needed to find out the underlying mechanism for this protective effect.
There are many risk factors for breast cancer that women have no control over, such as family history or the age at which they begin menstruating. Physical activity is one of the few breast cancer risk factors that women can do something about. There is a growing body of research showing that very active women are less likely to develop breast cancer than their sedentary peers. But less is known about the effect of moderate exercise, and whether less active women who start exercising get similar benefits.
Previous studies about the benefits of exercise on breast cancer risk are also difficult to compare side-by-side.
Researchers reviewed data collected from 95,396 women who were followed for 20 years in America. Overall, five in 100 women got breast cancer over 20 years. At regular intervals, women reported how active they were, and the types of exercise they chose to do. It was found that women who scheduled at least an hour of brisk walking per day (or an equivalent amount of activity) were 15 percent less likely to get breast cancer than women who walked less than one hour per week. And those who got little exercise but boosted their activity after menopause were 10 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who stayed inactive.
Therefore regular exercise was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer even after removing the potential influence of drinking and weight. The researchers also looked at which activities such as swimming, hiking, or jogging were associated with the lowest risk, and found that brisk walking appeared to be the most protective against breast cancer. Hence, women don't need to engage in vigorous workouts to see a benefit - it's enough to simply walk at a brisk pace, roughly 5-7 km per hour.
However, it remains unclear how exercise protects against breast cancer. Research has shown that physical activity reduces oestrogen in the blood, which can affect breast cancer risk. But in this study, exercise also reduced the risk of breast cancers that were not influenced by oestrogen, suggesting there are other explanations. More research is needed to find out the underlying mechanism for this protective effect.
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