New Study Shows Leisure-Time Exercising Lowers 13 Common Cancers

Exercise When You Feel Like It and Lower Your Cancer Risk

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society are giving us all some fantastic news about the relationship between greater levels of leisure-time physical activity and a lower risk of developing 13 different types of deadly cancer. The study, conducted by Steven C. Moore, Ph.D., of the NCI and his colleagues, was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on May 16, of this year, confirms that there's evidence supporting the benefit of physical activity in ones pastime to a reduced risk of cancer and emphasizes its role as an integral part of population-wide cancer prevention and control efforts. 

This study looked at hundreds of previous studies, pooling the data from 1.44 million people between the ages of 19 and 98 living in the United States and Europe. Study participants were followed for 11 long years during which time 187,000 new cases of cancer occurred. Among the participants who spent more of their leisure time being physically active than their sedentary counterparts, the study revealed an association with a lower risk of colon, breast, endometrial, liver, kidney, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia, rectum, bladder, myeloid leukemia, lung, and cancers of the neck & head. 

How much leisure-time physical activity are we talking about? A pretty doable amount in my opinion. The median level of pastime action was approximately 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. Coincidentally, this same 2 1/2 hour number is the same amount of minutes currently recommended by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention for moderate-intensity exercise. Way to go CDC!

What seems to the mechanism(s) causing this decreased risk of developing cancer? Well, there are numerous mechanisms that could be at play. It's possible that the leisure-time physical activity is causing a reduction in the transit time of waste to pass through the GI tract, a reduction in inflammation & oxidative stress, or increased immune function. It could be that hormones such as insulin, IGF-1, estrogen, and androgens such as DHEA, DHT, androsterone, and testosterone are being positively affected. 

Let's not get hung up too much on the importance of why our cancer risks are being reduced and instead let's stick to what we do know which is we need 150 minutes of off-work bodily movement to keep us off the direct mailing list of Sloan Kettering. 

So how do we apply the encouraging research discovered in this study in our own lives? This week before we go to work or after we get off of working our 9 to 5, it means we need to hit the gym for 30 minutes Monday through Friday without fail, we could throw on our faded shorts & tennis and go run for 50 minutes 3 days this week, or maybe squeeze in a 30-minute hike on Thursday and then swim for an hour two days this weekend. 

Free-style it and mix it up. Remember the study involved leisure-time physical activity and not rigidly scheduled exercise so no freaking out. Throw on your ball cap, throw a little caution to the wind, and just go exercise whenever you feel like it. 

Writing is my "thang" and your reading makes it possible for me to smile. Thank you.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert 

Offsetting Training Stress with Nutrition

Still smiling after a 20 mile run. 

Stress: An Inevitable Component of Achievement

There's a common joke amongst long-distance runners: You don't have to outrun the tiger, you just have to outrun your FRIEND! 

Competition is healthy. It promotes mental and physical growth. It forces us to try harder than we had ever tried before, to persevere longer than we thought possible, and to push beyond ones comfort zone and pain threshold to perform at a level that the athlete did not know that they were capable of reaching, achieving, and surpassing. 

To compete means to perform. Performance competitions like triathlons & ironman triathlons, half & full marathons, as well as expedition & adventure races require professional and amateur athletes alike to push their limits throughout the entire training process in order to improve both their mental and physical condition to emerge victorious. 

The amount of training necessary to compete at a high-performance sport is cognitively and physically demanding. Demanding on ones time, balancing work & family life.  There also exists a continuous tug-of-war and second-guessing game that goes on in the mind and body of a performance athlete as she or he attempts to weigh and assess training intensity with the risk of potential injury, trying to sustain motivation while experiencing physical and mental training fatigue, and struggling to stay hydrated and properly nourished but lean enough to stay competitive during the entire training process up to the day of the race.  

Training is stressful. Stress that is both physical and mental. Performance stress can be physically manifested in swollen joints, sore muscles, lethargy, nutritional deficiency, and weight gain. Mental stress can also be physical in nature, showing up as anxiety, inability to concentrate and sleep at night, depression, and fatigue. 

Initially appearing as weight gain and fatigue, stress, if ignored and unaddressed, can lead to systemic inflammation. Inflammation, now shown in clinical research to be one of the leading causes of acute and chronic illness as well as one of the leading causes of disease. Stress's ability to inflame the body and weaken the immune system is not to be taken lightly. 

So how can an athlete offset the negative physical manifestations of high-level training and speed up recovery? Nutrition and adequate hydration are two effective ways to counteract and mitigate training enervation and fatigue.

A healthy athlete is a well-performing competitor. Health begins with consuming nutrient-dense foods as part of a well-balanced diet that is full of plant-based variety and color.  Correct nutrition and adequate hydration are the legs on which sports conditioning and recovery stand. 

Muscle recovery requires a full range of vitamins and minerals coming from nutritious living foods. High-level training offset with a proper nutrient-dense diet can continually regenerate the athlete's cells by providing both the physical energy as well as the chemical building blocks required to replace lost or injured tissues as well as to rejuvenate and revitalize joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles necessary to compete on race day. 

Before you sign up for your next race, sit down and look at what you are feeding your body with. Eating sport-specific foods can help enhance the athlete's workout quality and fitness level by providing the correct balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein as determined by exercise intensity and performance requirement. Ultimately, your body is only as good as the food you feed it and an athlete is only as good as her or his body is on the day of the race.

Thank you for your readership. I definitely appreciate your support as I live out my passion in words.

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

BellGia.com