Exercise Reduce The Risk Of 13 Types Of Cancer

By Jenn Loro - 20 May '16 10:40AM

Health Buffs may have another big reason to hit the gym and fitness centers. A new study published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine has claimed high levels of physical activity including exercise is tied to lowered risks of 13 cancer types.

Physical lethargy is a common around the world with roughly 31% of the world's population not doing any significant effort to meet the doctor-recommended levels of physical activity such as exercise.

The researchers noted that any drop in cancer-related health risks due to increased levels of physical activity is of paramount importance in current public health campaigns to prevent widespread incidence of cancer and other dreadful but highly preventable diseases.

As reported by New York Times, researchers from the National Cancer Institute pooled together health data from 12 large-scale studies carried out in the US and Europe with self-reported physical activity involving 1.4 million participants from 1987 to 2004. Using the information, the researchers analyzed the link between physical activity (and exercise) with incidence of 26 types of cancer.

During the study period with 11 years of follow-up, 186,932 cancer cases were identified. Of the 26 types of cancer being considered, there seemed to be a connection between getting more exercise and lowered risk of 13 varieties of cancer.

As per Forbes Magazine, participants who were most physically active (in the top 10% of in their study groups), as opposed to those with least amount of physical exercise (in the lowest 10%), had lowered risk of the following 13 cancer types: (1) Esophageal adenocarcinoma (42% lower risk), (2) Liver (27% lower risk), (3) Lung (26% lower risk), (4) Kidney (23% lower risk), (5) Gastric cardia (22% lower risk), (6) Endometrial (21% lower risk), (7) Myeloid leukemia (20% lower risk), (8) Myeloma (17% lower risk), (9)Colon (16% lower risk), (10) Head and neck (15% lower risk), (11) Rectal (13% lower risk), (12) Bladder (13% lower risk) and Breast (10% lower risk).

The researchers concluded that, overall, high levels of physical activity including exercise is associated with 7% reduced risk of having cancer of any type.

"These findings support promoting physical activity as a key component of population-wide cancer-prevention and -control efforts," the scientists wrote as quoted by Fox News Health.