Get on your bike to reduce risk of prostate cancer
2 November 2009
Men who sit for less than half the time they are at work have a 20 percent lower risk of prostate cancer than men who sit down all day, Swedish researchers have found.
A study published online this week in the British Journal of Cancer is the largest to have ever looked at the link between prostate cancer and exercise, involving over 45,000 Swedish men aged between 45 and 79 years. The researchers looked at how likely men were to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in a 10-year period, compared with how physically active they were. All the men in the study were asked about their physical activity in the past year, and when aged 30 and 50 years old. They had to answer five questions about the amount of housework, walking or cycling, and other exercise they did, their inactive leisure time and their occupation, giving one of six levels of activity for each.
The researchers found that the more active men were throughout their life, the less likely they were to get prostate cancer. This was still true even after taking into account waist-hip ratio, height, history of diabetes, alcohol consumption, whether or not they smoked, education, total energy intake, how much dairy products and meat they ate and family history of prostate cancer.
The scientists then looked at what type of work the men did and how that affected their risk. Heavy manual workers had a 28 percent lower risk of prostate cancer, regardless of the amount of exercise they did outside work, compared with men who sat for most or all of the time at work. Men who sat for less than half of their time at work had a 20 percent reduced risk compared with men who sat all the time at work.
Exercise also greatly affected the likelihood of getting prostate cancer. Men who walked or cycled for an hour a day had a 14 percent lower risk than those who walked or cycled for 20 to 40 minutes a day. Men who walked or cycled for longer, reduced their risk by 7 percent for every extra half an hour they exercised up to a maximum of two hours.
Commenting on the study, Dr Paula Franklin, director of healthcare development at Bupa said: ""Until now there was no good evidence for the effect of exercise on the risk of prostate cancer but this study shows a link between increasing exercise and reduction of risk. It appears that it's important that men are physically active throughout their life to reduce their risk of prostate cancer later on, as well as bringing all the other health benefits associated with regular exercise."
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Related information
Read the study
Orsini N, Bellocco R, Bottai M et al. A prospective study of lifetime physical activity and prostate cancer incidence and mortality. Br J Cancer 2009, advanced online publication. doi:10.1038/bjc.6605404
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