ST. LOUIS, Feb 12, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A meta-analysis by U.S. researchers
finds people who exercise lower their risk of colon cancer.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard
University combined and analyzed several decades worth of data from past studies
on how exercise affects colon cancer risk. They found that people who exercised
the most were 24 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who
exercised the least.
"What's really compelling is that we see the association between exercise and
lower colon cancer risk regardless of how physical activity was measured in the
studies," lead study author Kathleen Y. Wolin of the Siteman Cancer Center at
Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University said in a statement. "That
indicates that this is a robust association and gives all the more evidence that
physical activity is truly protective against colon cancer."
The meta-analysis, published in the British Journal of Cancer, was based on 52
studies going back to l984. The researchers eliminated from consideration any
study that combined both colon and rectal cancer because exercise has not been
shown to affect rectal cancer risk.
"The beneficial effect of exercise holds across all sorts of activities," said
Wolin. "And it holds for both men and women. There is an ever-growing body of
evidence that the behavior choices we make affect our cancer risk. Physical
activity is at the top of the list of ways that you can reduce your risk of
colon cancer."
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International