Physical Activity Helps Fight Cancer

By Kerry Dunbabin

There’s no doubt that when it comes to our health, most of us would like to pop some sort of ‘magic pill’ – swallow a tablet to immediately make us fit and energised, and to miraculously cure us of all ills and ailments.

No such pill exists, nor is it ever likely to.  But there is something pretty close to it.

Unlike medications, you don’t need a prescription; it doesn’t cost anything; you can do it everywhere; it has immediate benefits; if you’re sensible about it there are no nasty side effects, and it can be addictive in a very positive way.

It’s exercise!

Most people are familiar by now with the importance of physical activity for reducing excess weight, as well as our risk of heart disease, stroke, and adult onset diabetes.

But what many don’t realise is that exercise can help reduce our risk of cancer, and improve our chances of recovering from the disease should we develop it.

Experts have estimated that a 10% weight loss across the Australian population would reduce cancers by 40%.

Regular physical activity appears to protect us against cancer independently of its protection through weight control.

That is, while changing your diet may help you lose weight, it’s just as important to exercise.  This will help you prevent cancer, even if you don’t need to lose weight.

While it’s not clearly understood how exercise reduces cancer, as it is a complex disease, it is believed to be related to hormonal activity and to the body’s response to insulin, immune activation and DNA repair mechanisms.

Active Australia advises 30 minutes of moderate activity per day, with some vigorous activity, and for cancer prevention, more is better.

It appears that 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day is needed to help prevent cancer.

The risk of cancer also increases with age, so it is important for people to keep active as they grow older.

According to the Cancer Council, physical inactivity could account for 19% of colon cancer and 9% of breast cancer – two of Australia’s most common cancers.

Some 15% of all cancers diagnosed in Tasmania are colorectal cancers, and we are more likely to die from this type of cancer than other Australians.

At the same time, it has been estimated that Tasmanians are approximately 50% less active than our parents’ generation, and if we compare current activity to the 1850s, the daily difference in energy output is the equivalent of a 15 kilometre walk.

The link between colon cancer and physical inactivity is claimed to be second only to that between smoking and lung cancer.

If you are physically active, your risk of colon cancer is 30%-40% less than people who are inactive.   And from a baseline of a moderate level of physical activity, for each extra half hour of physical activity per week, the risk is reduced by 10%.  

Recent studies have shown that exercise also will help prevent breast cancer, particularly in women who are post-menopausal.

As breast cancer risk is related to hormones, and –especially in post-menopausal women – hormones are produced in fatty tissue, then reducing fat reduces the production of oestrogen, which is thought to also lessen breast cancer risk.

In fact, experts have said that if a woman exercises three or four hours a week, she can reduce her risk of breast cancer by about 30%-40%.

Further studies have also indicated that it is possible that increased physical activity may reduce the risk of prostate cancer, which is THE most common cancer in Tasmanian men.

And that limiting weight gain reduces the risk of endometrial, pancreatic and kidney cancer, as well as cancer of the oesophagus.

Being fit will also help you to survive cancer should you get it.

It seems that a range of cancer treatments work better for people who are physically fit.

For example, fitness lowers the rate of post-operative complications after surgery for lung cancer.  And people who exercise are less likely to suffer from cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, anaemia and sleeplessness.

HEALTHY HINT:

One of the most effective and accessible forms of exercise is aerobic exercise – walking, cycling, climbing stairs, running, dancing and swimming.  Try to get moderately to vigorously active in one or more of these for 30-60 minutes a day to help ward off cancer.