Riding a Bicycle for 30 Minutes a Day Reduces Cancer Mortality Risk by 31%

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] A study has found that the more physical activity people engage in regularly, the lower their risk of cancer mortality.

On the 19th, a research team from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, a world-renowned cancer treatment and research institution, published these findings in 'JAMA Oncology,' a journal issued by the American Medical Association.

The research team conducted a longitudinal observational and analytical study from 2003 to 2007 involving over 30,000 Americans aged 45 and older. Among them, 8,200 individuals without cancer had their sedentary time, excluding sleep, measured. They wore accelerometers continuously for 7 days. The experiment and data collection related to this study were conducted from 2009 to 2013.

The team followed these participants for an average of 5 years, during which 268 people died from cancer. It was found that the more time spent sitting, the higher the risk of cancer mortality.

In particular, those who spent the longest time sitting had an 82% higher risk of death compared to those who did not.

It was also confirmed that reducing sitting time by just 30 minutes a day and replacing that time with physical activities such as exercise can have a significant effect.

When engaging in moderate-intensity exercises like cycling, the risk of cancer death decreased by 31%, and with light exercises such as walking, it decreased by 8%.

The research team emphasized that the core finding of this study is that reducing sedentary time, moving more, and increasing exercise by just 30 minutes a day helps reduce the risk of cancer mortality.

Susan Gilchrist, associate professor and first author of the paper, said, "Our next goal is to objectively measure how sedentary behavior affects cancer occurrence in different body parts and to study how variables such as sex and race act as factors."

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