OK, it may be too late to do anything about it, but it’s interesting to note that women who exercised when they were teenagers appear to be less likely to die from cancer, and all other causes for that matter, during middle age. We know this because a Vanderbilt University news release
reports that researchers at the school studied data from the Shanghai Women’s Health Study, a large ongoing study of 74,941 Chinese women between the ages of 40 and 70, that asked about exercise during adolescence, including participation in team sports, as well as other adolescent lifestyle factors. Participants were also asked about exercise during adulthood and other adult lifestyle factors and socioeconomic status, and they were interviewed again every two to three years. What exactly is “regular exercise”? The study defined it as occurring at least once a week for at least three continuous months. Ready? The envelope please…The researchers found that exercise both during adolescence and recently as an adult was significantly associated with a 20 percent reduced risk of death from all causes, 17 percent for cardiovascular disease and 13 percent for cancer.