Cycling reduces breast cancer risk

Research has found that women who cycle regularly appear to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. Three hours a week of moderate exercise is linked to a 34% reduction in risk. The benefits of cycling appeared to increase when the woman did more.

This study suggests cycling could have particular benefits. However the researchers admit this could be partly because those questioned had a better recall of bike riding compared to other forms of exercise.

The study comprised of 400 pre-menopausal women under 45 who have already had breast cancer, as well as with 880 healthy volunteers. Questions consisted of what types of exercise they participated in between the ages of 12 and 19, and 20 to 30 and whether it was light, moderate or heavy.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers from the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg said: ‘We found decreasing risks with increasing cycling activity levels.

They added: ‘For cycling, we found a significant protective effect, and sports appeared to have some protective effect among otherwise less active women.’

Martina Schmidt, who worked on the study, said ‘It could be that cycling improves your immune system.’ But she said more research was needed before their finding could be confirmed.

Clare Stevenson, a Cancer Research UK researcher at the University of Bristol said studies had shown a ‘robust’ protective link between exercise and cancer in postmenopausal women.

However she said the evidence was far less clear in premenopausal women. She also said it was unlikely that cycling was much better than any other form of exercise.

‘It could be that when people are asked to recall how much physical activity they’ve done, they may have had more accurate recall of cycling – because they cycled to school or work.

‘It’s important not to read too much into this and take away the message that cycling is particularly good for you.’

Ms Stevenson said there were indications that physical activity could help protect against cancer, but she said scientists had not yet pinned down the explanation.

(Source: BBC Online)