A new study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, examined the relationship between exercise and cancer.  Existing literature supports an inverse association between physical activity and postmenopausal breast cancer.  The researchers studied associations with moderate physical activity, which includes walking, and if those associations were impacted by other factors such as body mass index, postmenopausal hormones, adult weight gain, and estrogen receptor status.

Using the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study data, the researchers determined the risk of breast cancer relative to total recreational physical activity, walking, and time spent sitting as a leisure activity.  Associations did not differ by estrogen receptor status, body mass index, weight gain, or postmenopausal hormones. Sitting time was not associated with risk.  These results supported an inverse association between physical activity and postmenopausal breast cancer.  Specifically, there was a lower risk associated with walking seven hours or more per week.

In an analysis of the study, CBS Atlanta comments that this research can help older women prevent breast cancer after menopause.  Active women reduced their risk of breast cancer by 25 percent over the women who were the least active.  For women to be considered active, 47 percent said their only physical activity was walking for three to seven hours a week.  The researchers found they reduced their chance of breast cancer by 14 percent.

Exercise is already known to have a number of beneficial health impacts, both for current improvement and prevention of chronic, debilitating conditions in the future.  Medical News Today states that lifelong health benefits include improved cognitive functioning, such as memory and mental clarity, better blood circulation, better sleep, and delays in brain deterioration.  Increasing physical activity throughout one’s life has also been shown to prevent or delay the onset of dementia or a stroke later in life.  WebMD describes exercise as a “magic pill” that can cure some diseases, like certain forms of heart disease; help prevent or recover from some cancers; and improve quality of life for people suffering from arthritis.

A study published by the Cochrane Collaboration examined the effectiveness of exercise as a treatment for depression in adults.  The researchers examined whether or not adults that were receiving no other treatments showed improvement with exercise.  They concluded that exercise had a modest impact in reducing depression.  In comparison to psychological or pharmacological treatments for depression, there was no statistically significant difference with using exercise to improve depression instead.