MONDAY, July 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A person’s cardio fitness might influence whether he’ll develop — or survive — three of essentially the most common cancers in males, a brand new Swedish study reports.
Higher levels of cardio fitness are related to a significantly lower risk of developing colon and lung cancers, researchers report.
Cardio fitness also plays a task in a person’s likelihood of surviving prostate, colon and lung cancers, results show.
“Higher cardiorespiratory fitness [CRF] isn’t only necessary for reducing heart problems risk, which is commonly communicated, but in addition for reducing cancer risk in men,” said lead researcher Elin Ekblom-Bak, a senior lecturer with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm.
“Current cancer prevention guidelines concentrate on physical activity, but these findings show that CRF can also be very necessary for each reducing cancer risk and risk of death from common cancers in men,” Ekblom-Bak said.
For this study, Ekblom-Bak and her colleagues analyzed data on nearly 178,000 Swedish men, all of whom accomplished an occupational health assessment between October 1982 and December 2019.
As a part of this assessment, the lads tested their cardio health on an exercise bike, with doctors registering their blood oxygen levels as they pedaled.
Researchers then tracked the lads’s health using Swedish health registries, to see which men wound up developing cancer.
They specifically found a robust dose-response association between cardio fitness and lower risk either developing or dying from certain cancers, Ekblom-Bak noted.
In other words, the higher a person’s fitness, the lower their cancer risk.
For instance, moderate and high levels of cardio fitness were related to a 28% and 37% lower risk of developing colon cancer, in comparison with very low fitness.
Men with moderate and high levels of cardio fitness were also 43% and 71% less more likely to die from prostate cancer than men with very low fitness, results show.
The chance of death from lung cancer was 59% lower in men with high cardio fitness, after adjusting for smoking, researchers found.
The findings were published June 29 within the journal JAMA Network Open.
The study is exclusive in that so many men received a “gold-standard test” of their cardio fitness, in addition to doctor-measured reports of their height and weight, said Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living on the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
“This was a really large study with great follow-up and gold-standard measurements for these patients,” Ligibel said.
Previous research has shown that higher fitness can improve the cancer risk of each men and girls, she said.
“There’s plenty of physiologic things that may occur when someone exercises and becomes more cardiovascularly fit that we all know may be linked to the chance of developing cancer or the chance of dying from cancer,” Ligibel said.
As an example, people are inclined to have less inflammation and higher blood sugar levels if their cardio fitness is best, said Dr. Nicholas Rohs, a thoracic oncologist at Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center. In addition they are leaner and might have lower levels of cholesterol.
“These items place stress on our cellular systems, and the more stress we now have on our body, the more likely that cancer is to occur,” Rohs said.
Given these results, men ought to be aware that the health advantages of exercise are many and varied, Ekblom-Bak said.
“The physical activity guidelines from the World Health Organization promotes the message ‘Every move counts,’ meaning any amount of physical activity is best than none, and more is best,” Ekblom-Bak said.
“To extend or maintain your fitness, the intensity must be not less than moderate, which regularly is described as the sensation of somewhat hard, together with your respiration quickening,” Ekblom-Bak said. “Nonetheless, the rise in fitness is each related to the intensity and the quantity of physical activity performed, but in addition to individual genetic aspects.”
Rohs agreed.
“For an on a regular basis person attempting to act on this, higher cardiovascular intensity exercise like brisk walking, biking, jogging, swimming are ways to essentially get our heart rates up, improve cardiovascular output,” Rohs said.
“That’s how we actually train our heart and lungs to be healthier,” Rohs continued. “Anything that gets your heart going at a faster rate, your respiration increased, you’re sweating — these are all signs that your body’s working extra hard. Pushing yourself to that level where you’re feeling that form of stress signifies that you’re attempting to push your body further and get stronger.”
And it’s very likely that these advantages would hold for girls as well, Ligibel said.
“We all know that ladies who exercise are at lower risk of cancer, too,” Ligibel said. “That’s been shown for breast cancer, for colon cancer, for among the gynecologic malignancies, so you’ll expect for this to be seen in women as well.”
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about measuring physical activity intensity.
SOURCES: Elin Ekblom-Bak, PhD, senior lecturer, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden; Jennifer Ligibel, MD, director, Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Nicholas Rohs, MD, thoracic oncologist, Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center; JAMA Network Open, June 29, 2023