Is it Possible to Reduce the Risk of Cancer With Physical Activity?

    A study done by the National Institute of Health and the University of Oxford, found that individuals that exercised daily at a light/moderate intensity are at a lower risk for cancer than those who don't. There were a total of 85,000 participants, with the mean age of individuals being 63, who wore wrist accelerometers to track their daily activity across a span of roughly six years. Once all the data was collected, 2,633 out of the 85,000 participants had been diagnosed with one of thirteen types of cancer. The data showed individuals who had the highest amount of physical activity reportedly have a twenty six percent decreased risk of having cancer the those with the lowest amount of physical activity. It's apparent that researchers had identified correlation between going from being inactive to daily moderate activity, and a reduced risk of cancer. Even with taking into account other factors, such as demographic factors, lifestyle, BMI, and other health conditions, there was no change to the result. 

    When it came to the amount of steps taken by an individual, the more steps they had daily the lower the risk that individual had for developing a cancer. In comparison between an individual who has 5,000 steps a day to an individual who has 7,000 steps a day, the person with 7,000 steps lowered their risk by 11% whereas no difference was noted for the less active individual. Then around 9,000 steps a day and more, the percent plateaus at around 16%. The speed or intensity at which an individual walks does not matter nor does it affect the risk factor. It can be concluded that physical activity can benefit people in all stages of their life, and has many health benefits outside of lowering the risk for cancer.