Cancer Survivors Who Exercise Live Longer, Study Finds

Lisa Franchi January 28, 2014

It is a known fact that exercise, coupled with proper diet, is the key to good health and long life. Not only does exercise benefit healthy individuals, it also provides significant health benefits to people suffering from a wide range of conditions, including diabetes. Now, new research revealed that regular exercise may also help cancer survivors live longer.

The study, published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health, found that male cancer survivors who burned more than 12,600 calories each week had 48 per cent reduced risk of dying over a 15-year period, compared to those who burned fewer than 2,100 calories a week.

Researchers from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School looked at the date of 1,021 men with an average age of 71 who were diagnosed with cancer in the past, and who were part of the Harvard Alumni Health Study. These men completed questionnaires on their physical activity, such as sports, walking and other forms of exercise, in 1988, 1993 and 2008.

Not only did the more active men lower their risk of dying from cancer, they also lowered their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease over the study period.

Exercises that make you live longer

This was not the first study to show the benefits of physical activity on longevity. In 2008, researchers from the University of Geneva found that people who switched from using escalators to taking the stairs reduced their risk of premature death by 15 per cent. An earlier study by the Harvard Alumni Health suggests that climbing 35 or more flights of stairs a week could promote long life. Meanwhile, research presented during the 2011 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress revealed that men who pedalled the fastest lived more than five years longer than slower cycling men, and the fastest women cyclists lived almost four years longer. Furthermore, a 2009 study by the University of South Carolina found that swimmers had 50 per cent lower risk of dying than their sedentary peers.

All these findings tell us that exercise, no matter in what form (whether as hardcore as gym-based workouts or as simple as brisk walking), can promote health and longevity. So if you want to spend more years with your loved ones, better start exercising today.

Source of this article:

Exercise Helps Cancer Survivors Live Longer: Study