A sedentary lifestyle due to long working hours, coupled with stress and workload, is a disastrous combination for anyone. This can give rise to problems like obesity, high blood pressure and even cancer. Making daily exercise a part of the routine can provide a solution to these problems, especially cancer. A study published in the Experimental Biology journal has confirmed the same.
Researchers studied mice that exercised on a treadmill for 8 weeks. Mice that do not perform any exercise were also studied. After 8 weeks, cancer was induced in both groups of mice. Only some mice were cancer-free. Researchers found that mice with cancer and a sedentary lifestyle had a poor heart rate, whereas those who exercised had a comparatively smaller tumour.
A study performed on mice has shown that exercising before developing cancer can slow down tumour growth. Exercising can also slow down the effects of cachexia, a metabolic wasting disorder that can affect 80% of patients with advanced cancer. Cachexia is also considered the cause of major progressive muscle loss and decline in heart structure. It all culminates in poor quality of life.
According to a report by News Medical Life Sciences, Louisa Tichy, the lead author of this study, advises aerobic exercise to avoid cancer. Louisa says that consistent aerobic exercise is the best way to avoid cancer-based complications.
Previous studies have also shown that exercise could slow down the development of cancer cachexia but none were focused completely on preconditioning. Preconditioning is exercise before tumour bearing. Louisa said that the study shows that exercise plays an important role during cancer cachexia, adding that exercising can reduce tumour growth even when animals do not exercise during tumour bearing period.
Studies conducted earlier have also found a link between exercising regularly and shrinking cancers. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has suggested that doing exercise can improve the success of chemotherapy treatment in Esophageal cancer patients.
