Can You Reduce Your Risk of Cancer Through Diet and Exercise?

A Workout a Day Keeps the Cancer Away

Athletes know that lifting weights and exercising feels greater than anything (OK, almost anything) on Earth, but did you know that it can also reduce your risk of cancer?

Yes, it’s true – not only have you been working out all this time to get that stunning physique, but you have also been effectively reducing your chances of getting some of the most life threatening cancers.

One Third Reduced Risk of Cancer

Researchers say that regular physical activity and a healthy diet – two things that usually go hand in hand – can reduce the effects of colon and other cancers by up to 30%.

Moreover, diet and exercise can reduce the risk of many gender specific cancers too, like prostate and cervical cancer, largely because physical activity can decrease the amount of certain dangerous cell altering hormones.

Avoid Toxic Lifestyle Choices

Obviously we know that lifestyle choices, like smoking, drinking and eating junk food, leads to higher chances of getting cancer. This has been the leading consensus in cancer research for a long time, but only in the last few years or so are researchers seeing a link between diets that actually fight cancer.

For instance, a plant based diet consisting of leafy roughage, beans, and vegetables can, in effect, increase antioxidant levels that can fight the hormones and other deleterious cell properties that can cause some of the most harmful and deadly forms of cancer. Throw this diet in with exercise and you have a powerful combination.

Break the Link!

Researchers have shown that there is a link between cancer and people who don’t exercise more than 150 minutes a week. This amounts to about 20 minutes or so a day in the gym, provided that you work out 7 days a week. If you are a bodybuilder or competitive athlete, you might even be in the gym longer than that – meaning that you are reducing your risk for cancer even more.

Athletes might be more surprised to know that muscle building exercises in specific, like weight lifting, are the most effective at decreasing risks for cancer, because you are sending oxygen rich blood through the muscles, which can effectively stop major cellular changes that cause tumors to grow and cancer to occur.

An Increasing Number of Studies Back up the Facts

As more and more donors and wealthy patrons are contributing to oncology program development in the search for the elusive cure for cancer, studies are coming out multiple times a year that show the incredible cancer fighting effects of diet and exercise. The results are often staggering.

With proper exercise, women can fight certain endometrial cancers, like cervical and ovarian cancer, by up to 25%. Men can reduce prostate and other cancers by up to 30% if they only do a little bit of exercise daily and make more healthful eating choices.

At the end of the day, having a more intensely disciplined physical fitness regime can reduce the risk of cancer even more. It doesn’t just stop at the bare minimum. If you visit the gym daily for more than 30 minutes, your chances of getting a deadly and incurable form of cancer is even less. Now when you are building those muscles and eating to stay lean, you can also rest assured knowing that you are not only increasing the size of your biceps, but also your lifespan.

Tags: cancer, Diet, exercise, fitness, health, healthy, injury, nutrition, sick, sickness

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