A new report from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recent 56th annual meeting states that if you are over 30 years old, regular exercise of an hour a week may reduce your risk of breast cancer, which is the most common cancer among U.S. women.
According to American Cancer Society estimates, 192,370 women will be diagnosed with this form of cancer in 2009.
Right now there are almost 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, and the good news is that death rates from this type of cancer are headed in the right direction - Down.
While this is welcome news, far too many women still have to face this potentially disfiguring, often dangerous and always worrisome condition.
This was the rationale behind the research presented at the ACSM meeting, a rather detailed look at activity levels (among other things) in a large group of women.
The team questioned 4,296 women about their activity levels during four key stages of life; 10 to 15 years, 15 - 30 years, 30 - 50 years, and over 50 years.
The participants completed an extensive survey that included questions on ethnicity, education, menstrual and pregnancy history, use of oral contraceptives and female hormones, breast health screening practices, family history of cancers, smoking history, diet, alcohol intake, stress levels as well as the amount of weekly exercise.
"An average amount of exercise was defined as 60 minutes per week," explains lead researcher Lisa Sprod from the School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University, "so anyone exercising less than 60 minutes was below average, above 60 minutes was above average, and anyone that considered themselves highly competitive' chose that category."
What the researchers discovered was that breast cancer risks didn't have any link to the amounts of activity during the life stages under 30 years; but after a woman was over the 30 year mark her chances of developing breast cancer were considerably reduced if she was active.
Those who were the most active between 30 to 50 years old developed breast cancer less frequently than those who were less active during that same time period.
This lowered risk carried on even as the women passed their 50th birthday, and all it needed was 1 hour of activity per week for them to lower the risk.
"Regular exercise appears to have protective effects for this age group of women," continues student researcher Sprod. "Meeting physical activity recommendations can act like a prescription for prevention when it comes to breast cancer."
These findings agree with established data that links exercise and breast cancer risk, as it relates to a constant level of activity maintained over a lifetime.
Exercise is known to have a favorable effect on hormone levels, current weight and weight gain with age, as well as immune function.
If all this has you thinking you need to get more active, talk with your own doctor today and make a difference.
Once you get the go-ahead, slow, steady progress is what you're after. Ten minutes a day for the first few weeks is a solid start. Once you're able to do this much, slowly increase the length and then the intensity of your workout.
In this way you will avoid injury, build your endurance, and attack (and achieve) those fitness goals in manageable chunks.
Also, your added health might give you greater protection against breast cancer.
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