Exercise Shuts Down Polyp Growth in Colons

For years, doctors have been noticing that people who exercised regularly had fewer colon polyps than people who didn’t. Now they know why, almost. The Scientific American reports on research conducted at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which  looked at the structure of colonic
crypts, microscopic pits in the lining of the colon that help
to absorb water and nutrients. Sciam reports that the researchers randomly assigned 202 healthy men
and women aged 40 to 75 years to an exercise program with the
goal of working out moderately to vigorously for one hour a
day, six days a week, for a year, or a control group who did
not exercise. Researchers found that men who exercised for 250 to 300 minutes each week had a
1.7 percent reduction in the extent of cellular proliferation
within their colonic crypts, while the men who exercised more
than 300 minutes weekly reduced it by 2.4 percent. Men who exercised for less than 250 minutes a week
showed a 0.3 percent increase in the height of cellular
proliferation, while those who didn’t exercise had no change.
Read more in the Scientific American.