After my last story on how exercise can reduce cancer risk in men several of you wrote to me and asked whether the same was also true foe women.
The short answer is YES!
There are several studies to support the value of exercise in reducing cancer risk in women, but I like this study because it illustrates the importance of a holistic approach to health.
This particular study was conducted by Dr. James McClain and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and was reported at the 2008 American Association for Cancer Research meeting. They enrolled 5,968 women in the Washington DC area who were at least 18 years old in the study and followed them for nearly 10 years. They assessed their activity levels and asked how many of them developed cancer during that time period.
As you might expect, they found that those women with the highest activity level had a significant decrease in the incidence of total cancer and breast cancer. But what made this study particularly interesting was that they also assessed the amount of sleep the women averaged on a nightly basis. What the researchers found was that the women who slept less had a significantly increased risk of developing cancer. In fact, they estimated that if the women slept less than 7 hours a night that almost completely offset the advantages of exercise.
Their conclusion was that both sleep and exercise were important for women wishing to decrease their risk of cancer. They didn't look at diet and weight, but other studies have clearly shown that a good diet and maintaining ideal body weight also decrease cancer risk.
There is no magic bullet. It's not just one thing. Good health is holistic!
Elite Mobile Fitness provides In-Home Personal Training Services, Workplace Fitness and Community Wellness Outreach Programs. For more information please visit our web site Elite Mobile Fitness.
REMEMBER: When you're WELLthy - you're truly WEALthy!