When you think of reducing your risk of devastating diseases such as dementia and cancer, is exercise at the top of your list? If it isn’t, you may want to reconsider.

Compelling evidence suggests exercise can not only help slash your risk of cancer, it also helps cancer patients recuperate faster, and diminishes your risk of cancer recurrence.

There’s also plenty of research demonstrating that exercise benefits your brain as much as it does your body, and with rates of dementia rising precipitously, this is another significant reason to make sure you stay more active, regardless of your age.

Middle-Age Fitness Cuts Men’s Cancer Risk

One of the benefits of exercise is that it decreases your insulin resistance, and this is a profoundly effective strategy to reduce your cancer risk. This creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Exercise also improves circulation, driving more oxygen into your tissues, and circulating immune cells in your blood. Previous animal research¹,² suggests regular exercise may be the key to significantly reduce your chances of developing liver cancer, which is among the most common types of cancer.

More recently, research³,⁴ published in the journal JAMA Oncology found that being fit in middle age cut men’s risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer by 55 percent, and bowel cancer by 44 percent.

High levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in middle age also helped men survive cancer, reducing their risk of dying from lung, bowel, and prostate cancer by nearly one-third (32 percent). Not surprisingly, it also reduced their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 68 percent.

Other Studies Show 20-40 Percent Reduced Cancer Risk with Regular Exercise

Earlier research has also found that exercise—in this case weight training—cut men’s risk of dying from cancer by 40 percent. Similar findings have been reported in other studies.

According to a 2003 paper⁵ published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, “more than a hundred epidemiologic studies on the role of physical activity and cancer prevention have been published.” The authors noted that:

“The data are clear in showing that physically active men and women have about a 30-40 percent reduction in the risk of developing colon cancer, compared with inactive persons…

With regard to breast cancer, there is reasonably clear evidence that physically active women have about a 20-30 percent reduction in risk, compared with inactive women.

It also appears that 30-60 min·d-1 of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity is needed to decrease the risk of breast cancer, and that there is likely a dose-response relation.”