A new study adds to the large body of evidence that being in good physical shape can dramatically reduce cancer risk.
The study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that men with high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness in young adulthood had a lower risk of developing nine forms of cancer years later, including in the head and the neck, the lungs, the kidneys and the gastrointestinal system.
The study followed more than 1 million young men in Sweden over an average of 33 years, starting when they took a military fitness test that, until 2010, was legally required at around 18 years old. The researchers then analyzed the rates of cancer diagnoses among the men and compared them to the fitness levels registered on their military tests.
The test involved riding a stationary bike, first at a low resistance level for five minutes, then with an increase in resistance of 25 watts per minute until the test takers were too tired to continue.
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The authors of the new study sorted participants into low, moderate and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness — a measure of how well one’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems supply oxygen to the muscles — based on their bike test results. They found that the people with high fitness levels had a 19% lower risk of head and neck cancer and a 20% lower risk of kidney cancer compared to the low-fitness group.
The risk of lung cancer, meanwhile, was 42% lower for the fittest participants, though that was explained mainly by people’s smoking habits.
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