Fitness Cuts (Some) Cancer Risk In Half

First, the numbers: 13,949 men were given a treadmill test to determine cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). During an average 6.5 years, 1,310 of them were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 200 with lung cancer and 181 men with colorectal cancer. Researchers found that men with a high CRF in midlife had a 55 percent lower risk of lung cancer and a 44 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to men with low CRF. And now the bad news: the same association was not seen between midlife CRF and prostate cancer. Why? Science Daily reports that the researchers don’t really know, but they speculate men with high CRF may be more prone to undergo preventive screenings and therefore have a greater opportunity to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Wait, there’s more: The study also found that high CRF in midlife was associated with a 32 percent lower risk for cancer death among men who developed lung, colorectal or prostate cancer at Medicare age compared with men with low CRF.