Exercise has numerous advantages for your health, not just in the gym.
According to a recent study that was just published in the journal JAMA Oncology, just four to five minutes of “vigorous physical activity” among individuals who have been habitually inactive could considerably lower cancer risk.
Data from 22,398 non-exercising people with an average age of 62 who wore activity trackers for a week was analysed by researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Following that, the researchers examined the individuals’ cancer-related diagnoses, hospitalisations, and deaths over a number of years.
Based on six to seven years’ worth of medical records, researchers discovered that people who engaged in daily vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) for an average of 4.5 minutes per day had a 32% lower risk of “physical activity-related cancer incidence,” which includes kidney, bladder, stomach, and lung cancers.
The risk of cancer was decreased by 17% to 18% in persons who exercised for 3.4 to 3.6 minutes each day.
The trial was not open to participants who had previously been diagnosed with cancer, per the journal paper.
According to the press release, the researchers made adjustments for age, BMI, heart disease history, sleep patterns, food, family history of cancer, and smoking status.
According to a press release announcing the study’s results, lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, “We know that the majority of middle-aged people don’t regularly exercise, which puts them at increased cancer risk, but it’s only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living.”
