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Exercise saves you from cancer
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Regular physical activity and sports bring considerable benefits to the body, and this is no secret to anyone. However, it turned out that there is another significant advantage: physical education reduces the risk of developing cancer, and of various types. Research on this issue was conducted by representatives of such institutions as the National Cancer Institute, Harvard University, and the American Cancer Society.
Avoid physical inactivity and be physically active – these are the recommendations you can hear from almost every doctor. Indeed, many diseases can be prevented and even cured only through regular exercise. Now scientists are adding another important detail: sports can be an effective preventive measure to prevent cancer processes. What role does physical education play and what exactly is prevention?
The recommendations of specialists today are as follows: in order to maintain their own health, each person should engage in moderate physical activity from 2 ½ to five hours a week. If more intensive training is expected, then it is enough to carry it out in a volume of 75 minutes to 2 ½ hours a week.
Moderate physical activity means exercises that simultaneously load but do not overload the body, but force it to use approximately five times more energy resources than in a normal calm state. If we talk about the most intense exercises, then here we are talking about somewhat greater, but feasible short-term loads.
To conduct the study, the specialists analyzed information collected from nine archives, which included data such as an assessment of physical activity during leisure time, the incidence of various types of cancer (fifteen forms of malignant processes were included in the study). As a result, the scientists found that training with an intensity of seven to fifteen hours per week was associated with a reduced risk of developing seven types of cancer. These tumors were: colon cancer in male patients and breast cancer in female patients of all ages, kidney cancer, endometrial and liver cancer, plasma cell cancer and NHL (lymphatic system cancer). At the same time, the risk minimization increased with an increase in the duration of training.
Meanwhile, experts believe that the studies were somewhat limited. Although about 750,000 patients indirectly participated in them, almost all of them were of the same race, and their physical activity was assessed only in a general sense. Therefore, the results cannot be considered 100% accurate. However, the scientists' conclusions were confirmed in a number of experimental studies by other researchers.
The material was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology