Lower Your Cancer Risk With Just Four Minutes of Exercise

livemint.com:

To reduce your cancer risk, you don’t need to make it all the way to the gym: You could start by bringing in the groceries. People who recorded just under four minutes of vigorous movement every day had a roughly 17% reduced cancer risk compared with people who didn’t log any high-intensity movement, a study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology concluded.

The link was stronger for cancers in which exercise has previously been connected to lower risks, including breast, colon, endometrial and bladder cancer. The study followed more than 22,000 people who reported that they didn’t exercise but logged minute-long bursts of activity such as walking uphill or carrying shopping bags.

It adds to evidenceconnecting physical activity to better health,even when the movement is modest. “Short bursts of vigorous activity are clearly important for cancer risk at the population level," said Elizabeth Salerno, a biobehavioral scientist at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St.

Louis, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It’s never too late to get moving in small ways, whether that be parking farther away at the store or taking the stairs." Study participants who moved vigorously throughout the day might have beenat lower risk for cancer to begin with, said William McCarthy, adjunct professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“I would not assume that adults adverse to structured physical activity should be satisfied with running up the stairs several times a day as an effective cancer-prevention alternative," he said. Exercise has been linked to lower risk of several cancers, and health groups recommend that adults get at least