Short Burst of Vigorous Exercise Each Day Cuts Cancer Risk
Three to four minutes of vigorous exercise a day — like climbing stairs — seems to reduce cancer risk, according to a study.
The research was published online on July 27, 2023, by the journal JAMA Oncology. Read “Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity and Cancer Incidence Among Nonexercising Adults: The UK Biobank Accelerometry Study.”
About the study
Many studies have shown that being physically active every day can reduce your risk of breast cancer. If you’ve been diagnosed, it can reduce your risk of recurrence (the cancer coming back).
Exercise is so important that the American Cancer Society and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend that people who’ve been diagnosed with cancer build up to at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity each week.
We know exercise is good for us, but many people have a hard time exercising every day. Finding the time and the motivation, not to mention figuring out the exercise to do, are common roadblocks.
In this study, the researchers wanted to know if vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity could reduce the risk of cancer in people who didn’t exercise.
The researchers defined vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity as short bursts of vigorous activity, including climbing stairs or very fast walking, done for one or two minutes a few times a day.
The study included 22,398 people whose average age was 62.
Among the people in the study:
45.2% were men
54.8% were women
96% were white
1.4% were Asian
1.1% were Black
0.6% were multiracial
0.9% were another race or ethnicity
The people were all part of the UK Biobank Accelerometry Study, a study that asked people to wear a wrist accelerometer for seven days. As the name suggests, a wrist accelerometer is a device worn on the wrist that records acceleration in three directions. When they joined the study, all the people said they did no leisure time exercise and took one or zero walks a week. None of the people had been diagnosed with cancer before joining the study.
Using the information collected by the wrist accelerometer the researchers classified the people’s activity as:
light intensity; activities such as slow walking or biking
moderate intensity; activities such as brisk walking or faster biking
vigorous intensity; climbing stairs or biking up a hill
Overall, 6.2% of the people did no vigorous activity.
Most of the vigorous activity was done in bursts of up to one minute. More than 97% of all the vigorous activity lasted up to two minutes.
After about seven years of follow up, the researchers reported that 2,356 cancers were diagnosed in the people in the study.
The results showed that 3.4 to 3.6 minutes of vigorous exercise a day was associated with a 17% to 18% reduction in cancer risk.
“[Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity] may be a promising intervention for cancer prevention among individuals unable or unmotivated to exercise in leisure time,” the researchers wrote. “Long-term trials with cancer-related biomarker outcomes and well-designed cohort studies with wearable devices should further explore the potential of [vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity] as a cancer prevention intervention for non-exercising individuals and for those who find structured exercise unappealing.”
What this means for you
If you don’t like exercising or have trouble fitting it into your busy schedule, this study offers encouraging news. Doing short bursts of vigorous exercise, like climbing stairs or walking fast, for a minute or so three or four times a day may help reduce your risk of developing cancer.
But it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
This study only looked at the risk of a first-time cancer, not the risk of recurrence. So if you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, we don’t know if a few minutes of vigorous exercise lowers recurrence risk.
This study only looked at people who said they didn’t exercise. So if you routinely exercise, it’s unclear if cutting back to just a few minutes of vigorous exercise a day reduces your risk of cancer.
The average age of the people in the study was 62. It’s not clear if the results would apply to people who are quite a bit younger.
We know that finding the motivation and time to exercise nearly every day can be tough, especially when you have to balance it with all the other things you have to do.
Starting slowly and then gradually increasing the time and intensity you exercise can help, especially if you’ve never exercised before. Walking for 15 to 20 minutes a day can be a good way to start. Slow bike riding or gentle stretching are also good options for beginners.
Walking or doing another type of exercise with a friend can give you the motivation you need to carve out some time to be active each day. Plus, you can socialize at the same time. It’s never too late to get moving. And once you start, keep at it!
— Last updated on October 18, 2023 at 6:11 PM