Find out the real numbers here…
It’s a well-known fact that exercise plays an important role in good health. Without exercise, your body produces less energy, your hormones can go out of balance, your bones and muscle lose mass, and your cardiovascular system works less efficiently. By doing exercise, you ensure that your body is working in tip top shape, and you effectively stave off a wide range of health disorders and diseases.
According to a new study out of the National Cancer Institute, exercise can have a very pronounced, very quantifiable effect on cancer. In fact, the National Cancer Institute actually found out just HOW MUCH of an effect exercise has on cancer. The results may surprise you…
The Effects of Exercise on Cancer
A team of researchers from the NCI analyzed dozens of cancer studies from both Europe and the U.S., examining them to determine what, if any, effect exercises had on cancer. The people who exercised more than the other 90% of subjects studied had a:
- 27% lower risk of liver cancer
- 42% lower risk of esophageal cancer
- 22% lower risk of stomach cancer
- 23% lower risk of kidney cancer
- 26% lower risk of lung cancer
- 20% lower risk of myeloid leukemia
- 21% lower risk of endometrial cancer
- 17% lower risk of myeloma
- 13% lower risk of rectal cancer
- 16% lower risk of colon cancer
- 13% lower risk of bladder cancer
- 10% lower risk of breast cancer
Wow, that’s some pretty impressive numbers! Just doing exercise is enough to seriously reduce your risk of all these cancers. Best of all, we’re not talking endless hours of weightlifting or marathon running. In fact, the people who exercised most in these studies only got 60 to 90 minutes per day. They didn’t lift weights or jog for hours; instead, they simply brisk walked every day.
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The results are in: exercise really DOES help to reduce cancer! The more exercise you do, the better! The study found that people who do more than 2.5 hours of exercise per week obtain these cancer-lowering benefits of exercise. Not only that, but people who did exercise or engaged in active activities during their leisure time (the weekends, for example) had a 7% lower risk of cancer.
Pretty much, as long as you move around and stay active, your risk of cancer is going to decrease. Exercise encourages the proper functioning of all your internal organs, systems, and processes. It ensures healthy brain function, keeps your heart and lungs working well, promotes healthy digestion, balances your hormones, and the list goes on! It’s one of the best things you can do to be healthier overall, and it’s certainly vital to avoid obesity and metabolic disorders. Now, with the discovery that doing exercise can reduce your risk of cancer, you’ve got ANOTHER reason to include exercise in your daily schedule.
Ideally, you should be doing at least 2 or 3 hours of resistance training every week. That means lifting weights or doing bodyweight strength training. You should also mix an hour or so of cardiovascular exercise in with the resistance training. This will keep your heart and lungs working well, and will encourage weight loss. Do these workouts, and you’ll notice serious improvements in your overall health. Best of all, the exercise will help to protect your body from a wide range of diseases, and will lower your risk of cancer.
What workouts do you love? What kind of exercise gets you up in the morning? Drop a comment below and let us know…
