How Much Walking & Hiking Lower Pancreatic Cancer Risk?
Hiking & even plain walking do a great job of lowering the risk of pancreatic cancer, but what’s important to know is just how much per week of these exercises you should do to optimally cut your risk.
We can start out by asserting that inactivity has been strongly linked to a higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
And so has obesity. Obesity and inactivity go hand-in-hand. However … don’t assume that inactivity won’t raise pancreatic cancer risk if you’re thin!
So if you’re thin and not exercising, you have brought a risk factor for pancreatic cancer into your lifestyle.
Hiking & Walking Lower Risk of Pancreatic Cancer
The study linking obesity and lack of exercise to pancreatic cancer risk was conducted by Harvard’s School of Public Health researchers, plus affiliated hospitals.
The investigation is based on data from two studies involving over 150,000 male health workers and female nurses, across the U.S., who were tracked for up to 20 years.
The follow-up revealed 350 cases of pancreatic cancer, and a higher risk was shown in subjects who had a BMI (body mass index) of at least 25.
At 25, this means mildly overweight, though it can also mean moderately overweight, depending on how the excess weight is distributed in the body (a woman can have a relatively small midsection yet quite a bit of fat in her thighs, buttocks, hip area and upper arms).
The biggest risk for pancreatic cancer was seen in people with a BMI of at least 30.
So what’s the best kind of exercise, then, for lowering the risk of pancreatic cancer?
It’s simple to just say, “Any activity that causes weight loss or helps maintain a healthy weight.”
But specifically, the study showed that at least four hours a week of hiking or walking was linked to a 54 percent reduction, on average.
This risk reduction pertained to obese and overweight subjects.
These results point to another factor: Diabetes and even insulin resistance are linked to the devastating disease.
More research into walking, hiking and other exercise and lowering pancreatic cancer risk is warranted.
In the meantime, if you don’t do walking exercise or hike, then get started, because there’s enough evidence to sink a battleship that sticking to an exercise regimen creates reams of benefits for the human body.
If hiking is not a practical activity for your location, you can mimic hiking by walking on an inclined treadmill.
However, you will sabotage your health and fitness goals (including lowering pancreatic cancer risk) if you hold onto the treadmill! Here’s why.
If you don’t want to do ANY kind of walking, you can still derive a comparable cardiovascular output by engaging in aerobic group fitness classes, taking a spin class, using a revolving staircase or taking up martial arts.
If you have a dog, you can easily get in some extra mileage by walking the dog more often and/or for longer durations.
Another way to get in extra mileage is to get a treadmill desk for your computer time, or set up a treadmill in your TV room to use it when watching TV.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Sources: jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/286/8/921.pdf; Journal of the American Medical Association (August 22, 2001)
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What Kind of Exercise Lowers Uterine Cancer Risk Best?
You’ll actually be shocked at the kind of exercise that lowers uterine cancer risk by a whopping 52 percent when compared to less active women.
Research shows that physical activity can be very beneficial in reducing the risk of uterine cancer.
One compelling study followed 253,023 women for over six years.
This study showed that premenopausal women who exercised the most were an impressive 34 percent less likely to get uterine cancer, when compared to inactive women in the study.
Interestingly, the type of exercise that this study deems as particularly beneficial is that of doing a lot of housework.
However, the study also says that the amount of household, or recreational-level exercise, would have to amount to three to four hours every day – to create the greatest benefit to lowering uterine cancer risk.
- Just how much of that 3-4 hours a day of activity was comprised of the housework?
- Who does three hours of housework a day, with the exception of women who do this to earn money?
This would mean women with large families. What about women with a few kids or no kids and a tidy husband? This is where the “recreational” exercise comes in.
But 3-4 hours a day total is quite a bit for the vast majority of women, unless they get in a lot of exercise on the job.
This is my take, but here is what Dr. Christine Friedenreich of the Alberta Cancer Board in Calgary, Canada and her colleagues write in the International Journal of Cancer:
“This amount and type of activity is achievable by many in the at-risk population.”
A woman who works a desk job, then comes home to an empty house, or just a husband living there, will really have to make a point of getting in a lot of exercise every day.
The report stated that several studies had linked exercise with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer, but that only two studies had investigated total activity rather than activity on the job or recreational activity.
The researchers analyzed data from EPIC (European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition), which involves over half a million women and men spanning 10 European nations.
Out of that 253,023 women, 689 developed uterine cancer. Overall (i.e., both premenopausal and postmenopausal women), the most active subjects had a 12 percent lowered likelihood of being diagnosed with uterine malignancy.
However, when looking at just the premenopausal women, again, we see that percentage leaps to 34 percent.
Most surprising is that for the premenopausal women who did the most housework, the reduction in uterine cancer risk was a whopping 52 percent lower than in less active women.
But how practical is it for the average women to figure out how to do three or more hours of housework every day?
Unless the house is full of kids, how much housework can accumulate every 24 hours?
I’d like to see research into the effects of shorter-duration but very intense exercise on lowering uterine cancer risk.
It’s far more realistic for women, especially busy women, to engage in just one hour a day of very intense exercise, than to spend 3-4 hours a day cleaning the house or even mixing that up with “recreational” level activity.
Another study shows that light to moderate exercise works to reduce uterine cancer risk particularly with obese women.
Light to moderate exercise means a range of being able to comfortably carry on a conversation while working out.
Yet at the same time, one is still elevating the heart rate and sustain the activity (walking, stationary bike), to a level of having to breathe hard, even sweating, feeling the fatigue, feeling the effects on conversation — yet still able to talk and sustain the exercise.
If these kinds of studies have you confused, just remember some basic facts about exercise and activity:
- Limit sitting time. Be up and about as much as possible, such as when communicating via text.
- Consider getting a treadmill desk.
- Commit to aerobic exercise at least twice a week.
- Commit to strength training two to three times a week.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Pixel-Shot
Sources: International Journal of Cancer, July 15, 2007
American Cancer Society’s Prospective Cancer Prevention Study 2 Nutrition Cohort study.
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Are There Ab Exercises that Don’t Target the Abs?
Stop wasting time doing 1,000 crunches a week and camping out by all the abdominal machines; there are non-ab targeting exercises that will shrink your stomach.
To lose fat in the abs, you must create a huge energy deficit in your body.
When your body is depleted of energy, it will dip into stored fat reserves for energy.
Doing ab exercises will not create a substantial energy deficit because abdominal muscles are small and weak.
And small, naturally weak muscles do not need much energy, even after crunching them a thousand times.
If you focus your weight workouts on the legs, buttocks, back and chest, AND, if your exercise routines are intense, you will create a significant energy deficit — a deficit that occurs for hours after the exercise session has ended.
Freepik.com/pressfoto
During this deficit period, the body is in grave need for recuperation energy. It will grab this energy from stored body fat.
If your fat is in the abs, then voila — your exhausted legs, butt, back and chest will dip into these fat reserves.
The result? Fat loss in the abs. It doesn’t matter that your abs weren’t directly exercised.
When the legs are exercised intensely with weights, this creates a need for large amounts of energy both during the exercise and for hours after the workout has concluded.
Shutterstock/MilanMarkovic78
The fat that’s stored in your abs will be used for this energy, to help the legs recuperate, and to sustain the new muscle that has been grown as a result of the exercise.
When I was a trainer I had my clients doing intense squats, deadlifts, leg presses, hamstring curls, leg extensions, box jumps and staircase dashes — and their waists grew smaller right before my eyes.
For an extra punch add pull-ups (work on those!), rows and the bench press.
Shutterstock/Studio Peace
So if you want to get rid of abdominal fat, focus on working the large muscle groups, because these demand the most energy for exercise, and for recovery after the exercise.
And then, they continue requiring energy for maintenance (as long as you keep exercising them intensely with weights). And this energy will come from the fat in your abs.
The only way this plan won’t work is if you start eating like a hog because you think the hard workouts entitle you to it. Eat sensibly and watch the fat come off your abs.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Viktor Gladkov
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