Study Shows Physical Fitness Can Decrease Risk of Nine Separate Cancers up to 40 Percent

A new study has shown that physical activity, especially that which benefits the cardiorespiratory system, may decrease risk of nine separate cancers by up to 40 percent.

Research published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (via Healthline) indicates that risk of head and neck, stomach, pancreas, liver, colon, rectum, esophagus, kidney, and lung cancers can be curbed by cardiovascular fitness. “We found that higher cardiorespiratory fitness at age 18 was associated with a lower risk of being diagnosed with nine out of the 18 site-specific cancers we included in our study. The associations between fitness and cancer seemed to be most apparent in gastrointestinal cancers,” Dr. Aron Onerup, PhD, the lead author of the study, told Healthline.

Though physical fitness has long been associated with reducing cancer risk, this is the first study to examine a link between risk reduction and cardiorespiratory fitness. In order to obtain their results, researchers used a Swedish database to track one million military recruits who joined between 1968 and 2005. In order to be admitted, applicants had to pass routine tests for blood pressure, BMI, height and weight, and physical strength assessments, ensuring that these were some of the healthiest specimens available for study.

Results indicated that increased levels of cardiovascular activity decreased risk of rectal cancer by five percent. Pancreatic cancer was shown to have a risk reduction of 12 percent. The cancers that showed the most significant risk reduction through fitness were those of the esophagus (40 percent) and lungs (42 percent). Of the over-one-million participants, only seven percent (84,117) developed one of the 18 monitored cancers across an average 33 years of observation.

While experts recommend 150–300 minutes of exercise each week, Dr. Onerup reiterated that any amount of activity is positive. “Our results also show that, as for other diseases, the association seems to be linear, meaning that every positive change in fitness is associated with some risk reduction. Hence, even small additions count,” he advised.