Exercise can help you prevent these cancers

Exercise is indispensable in daily life. In addition to enhancing immunity and promoting physical health, exercise can also prevent cancer. How does exercise prevent cancer? What cancers can exercise prevent?

Hundreds of previous studies have shown that exercise can reduce the risk of colon cancer, breast cancer, and endometrial cancer. However, due to the small number of participants in many studies, definitive conclusions have not been able to be drawn.

In the new study, researchers from the National Cancer Institute and other institutions analyzed the situation of 1.44 million people in Europe and the United States. The people were tracked for an average of 11 years and exercised an average of about 150 minutes per week through walking, running and swimming, which is similar to the amount of time recommended by US health agencies. During the study period, 187,000 people were diagnosed with cancer.

Exercise can prevent 13 types of cancer

The study analyzed a total of 26 types of cancer, and the results showed that people in the top 10% in terms of exercise levels had a 20% or greater reduced risk of seven types of cancer compared to those in the bottom 10%. These included esophageal adenocarcinoma (42% reduction), liver cancer (27%), lung cancer (26%), kidney cancer (23%), cardiac cancer (22%), endometrial cancer (21%), and myeloid leukemia (20%).

The risk of six other cancers was also reduced, including myeloma (17%), colon cancer (16%), head and neck cancer (15%), rectal cancer (13%), bladder cancer (13%) and breast cancer (10%).

Since the risk of 13 other types of cancer did not show a significant reduction, the researchers pointed out after analysis that, overall, active exercise can reduce the risk of cancer by about 7%.

It is worth noting that among the 13 cancers whose risks can be reduced through exercise, the risk reduction for 10 was not related to weight loss, indicating that the mechanism of cancer risk reduction may not be related to weight loss. The reduced risk of lung cancer was only seen in smokers or those who had quit smoking.

Steven Moore of the National Cancer Institute, who led the study, said in a statement that it is well known that exercising in your spare time helps reduce the risk of heart disease and death, but this study shows that exercise can also reduce the risk of many cancers. Therefore, medical personnel "should actively promote that exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle and cancer prevention."