Exercise and Cancer Risk
There’s an interesting discussion in today’s NYT about the relationship between exercise and the (reduced) risk of certain cancers. What I found intriguing about the Finnish study highlighted in the article, was the association of cancer risk with exercise intensity.
What these recent studies, including the one from Finland, share is the suggestion that, in order to use exercise to reduce the risk of cancer, you must make yourself sweat. In the Finnish study, the most beneficial exercise was both frequent and demanding. The researchers used METs (an acronym for metabolic equivalent of task, a numerical comparison of the oxygen or energy used during an activity versus the amount used at rest) to characterize their subjects’ exercise habits. A MET of 1 is the equivalent of lolling inertly on the couch. In his study, jogging steadily for 30 minutes or so represented a MET of about 10. The men whose METs reached at least 5 almost every day were the least likely to die of cancer, especially of the lung or the gastrointestinal tract.
Just one more reason to break a sweat in the gym (not that any more are needed)!
