This new study should come as no surprise to all of you: getting enough exercise can help prevent breast cancer risk in older women who are postmenopausal.
The new study, which is published in a December issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, looks at the correlation between exercise levels and the response it solicits in types of breast cancer tumors. Higher levels of physical activity lead to a stronger level of positive response from estrogen receptors, along with a weakened response from progesterone receptors that are associated with negative tumors.
What does all that mean? Well, for starters, breast cancer does not have one specific cause — many things can trigger the disease. Since breast cancer has many causes, knowing how these differ from one another has helped scientists learn how to battle the disease. Hormone receptors are one means by which scientists can differentiate the causes of various forms of breast cancer. Hence, tumors are classified as being either estrogen or progesterone receptive (ER+/PR+ or ER-/PR-), meaning they either positively or negatively bind to either hormone, which could mean a higher cancer risk.
According to the researchers in the study, “Recent studies have found that various well-established risk factors for breast cancer vary by the ER/PR profile of the tumor, including age, menopausal status, parity, age at menarche, age at first pregnancy, hormonal use, family history, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, alcohol consumption, dietary fat intake and folate level.”
So how does the ER/PR and tumor link relate to exercise in postmenopausal older women? In the study, which gleaned information from the famous Iowa Women’s Health Study, researchers reviewed information on 41,836 postmenopausal women between the ages of 55 and 69. The women were asked to fill out a 16-page questionnaire that focused on how much they worked out and at what intensity.
The rates came in as high physical activity, which involved vigorous activity twice a week or moderate activity performed four times a week (9,111 women); medium activity, which involved one intense workout and one to four moderate workouts a week (10,030 women); and the rest of the group fell into the low physical activity bracket (17,222 women).
After following up on the participants (on several occasions between 1997 and 2003), researchers noted that 2,548 cases of breast cancer occurred, where 36, 363 of the women were analyzed. It turned out that the women who fell into the high physical activity bracket (based on the original survey) had a 14% lower risk of developing breast cancer, as compared to those women who had low levels of physical activity.
The researchers noted the relationship between high physical activity and lower tumor incidences. Since physical activity lowers body fat, which is the major source of estrogen in women who are postmenopausal, a corresponding lowered risk of developing cancer is not a surprise finding.
According to the researchers, “Lowering estrogen levels could lead to a decreased ER+/PR+ tumors, the opposite of which is seen in obesity, in which increased circulating estrogens are associated with increased ER+/PR+ tumors.”
Along with all the other health benefits that are tied to regular physical activity, lowering your breast cancer risk is an added bonus. So if you haven’t already, get moving today — your body will thank you for it.
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Tags: Breast Cancer, cancer risk, exercise
