Evidence has been accumulating for some time that exercise reduces the risk of many types of cancer, including chest malignancies.
A new study has found that women who exercise energetically for an hour a day can reduce their risk of chest cancer, irrespective of their weight or age.
Findings released at the European chest Cancer Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, reveal that exercising vigorously for an hour a day can reduce chances of the disease by 11 per cent and exercising for longer will increase protection further still compared with the least active women.
37 studies involving more than four million women were examined by French researchers and they found women of any age or size who exercise for an hour a day all get a similar benefit, including those with the most aggressive cancers.
According to Professor Mathieu Boniol, research director at the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, the benefit seems to be cancelled out in women taking hormone replacement therapy.
He said, “These are all the studies looking at the relationship between physical exercise and chest cancer risk that have been published to date, so we are confident that the results of our analysis are robust.”
He added that exercising was low cost and a simple strategy to reduce the risk of chest cancer which is very expensive to treat.
Noting that chest cancer, including its aggressive types, to the list of diseases can be prevented by physical activity, he encouraged the development of cities that foster sport by becoming bike and walk-friendly, the creation of new sports facilities, and the promotion of exercise through education campaigns.
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