Walking for 20 minutes a day reduces the risk of getting cancer

When you are told that exercise is good for health, you probably imagine grueling workouts and hours in the gym. New research reveals that this is not the case and twenty minutes a day of walking will do the job

Walking for 20 minutes a day reduces the risk of getting cancer

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If you thought that to get the health benefits of exercise you should go to the gym every day, you are wrong. A recent study has shown that people who have moderate exercise for two and a half hours a week are less likely to have seven types of cancer. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that even a quick daily walk for just over 20 minutes, or a high-intensity bike ride, can reduce the risk of getting cancer.

The researchers tracked an average of 755,549 people for a decade, with most of them exercising between two and a half to five hours a week, with varying degrees of difficulty. Some were not active at all.

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Dr. Alfa Patel, co-author of the American Cancer Society's war study, said: "The exciting thing about the results is that they show that even a small amount of normal medium intensity activity, such as fast walking, can provide tremendous benefits. This is good news for many people who, when they hear that they need to exercise more for their health or cancer prevention, they think it's something as drastic as marathon training. "

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The findings of the study showed that 20 minutes a day activity could reduce the risk of liver cancer by 18 percent, in both men and women. It increased to 27 percent when people did five hours a week of moderate exercise. The study also found that the risk of breast cancer for women decreased by six percent when it was two and a half hours of moderate exercise, or 10 percent for those who exercised five weekly. The risk of kidney cancer in both men and women decreased by 11 percent when they did two and a half hours of moderate exercise per week, or by 17 percent if it was five weekly hours.

Helps lose weight. Woman walking (Photo: shutterstock)

Woman walking (Photo: ShutterStock)

Women who performed the recommended physical activity a week were less likely to have uterine cancer of up to 18 percent, compared to women who were not at all active. They were also less than 18 percent likely to have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Men who did the recommended amount of exercise were less than 14 percent likely to have colon cancer. Both men and women showed a reduced risk of up to 19 percent of myeloma blood cancers.

The results show that exercise partially reduces the risk of cancer because it helps in weight loss. Still, the researchers noted that even those who are not losing weight can achieve protection against certain cancers.