WASHINGTON — It’s pretty well known that exercise is good for you. But a new study shows that it may even lower your risk for many types of cancer.
A new study published in JAMA Network finds that regular exercise reduced the risk of 13 kinds of cancer, mostly irrespective of other known factors such as body size or smoking history.
The types of cancer affected by exercise and how much they decreased:
- Esophageal adenocarcinoma (42 percent)
- Liver (27 percent)
- Lung (26 percent)
- Kidney (23 percent)
- Gastric cardia (22 percent)
- Endometrial (21 percent)
- Myeloid leukemia (20 percent)
- Myeloma (17 percent)
- Colon (16 percent)
- Head and neck (15 percent)
- Rectal (13 percent)
- Bladder (13 percent)
- Breast (10 percent)
Overall, the study found that exercise was associated with a 7 percent lower risk of all kinds of cancer.
The study pooled information from 12 cohorts, and included a total of 1.4 million participants between 1987 and 2004.
