Exercise 'cuts colon cancer risk'
Updated on 12 February 2009
People who take regular exercise can cut their risk of colon cancer by 24%, researchers said.
A review of 52 studies found that those people who were the most active were far less likely to develop the cancer than people who did very little. The analysis was carried out by experts in the US and published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Two-thirds of bowel cancer cancers occur in the colon and around a third occur in the rectum. Regular exercise is known to help cut the risk of bowel cancer, including colon cancer, in several ways.
Furthermore, regular physical activity helps reduce the level of insulin and other hormones, which are linked to the growth of cancer tumours. Exercise has also been shown to reduce inflammation in the bowel, which could otherwise cause bowel cancer.
The latest study looked at research covering many types of exercise and activity, including manual labour at work, running and going to the gym. One study - the US Nurses' Health Study - compared women who walked briskly for five to six hours a week with those who walked for 30 minutes a week or less.
The combined results of all the studies showed that those who took regular exercise cut their risk of colon cancer by 24%. The results were the same for both men and women.
Study author Dr Kathleen Wolin, from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, said: "These results give us a very reliable calculation of the positive effect that exercise can have on reducing colon cancer risk.
"It's very positive to see that exercise has such a clear benefit in reducing cancer risk and we hope it will encourage people to enjoy a healthy active lifestyle as well as treating it as a way to minimise their colon cancer risk."
Bowel cancer is the third most common form of cancer, affecting more than 36,500 people a year in the UK.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "This work brings together the findings from many different studies which seek to understand the effect that exercise has on cancer risk - which gives us greater confidence in its results."
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
