Surprising everyday activities can reduce risk of cancer without going to gym

18 September 2023 , 10:37

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Every day movements that make you huff and puff are good for you (stock image) (Image: Getty Images)

It goes without saying that exercise is good for you but not everyone can fit it in every day. Thankfully, this isn't the only way to improve your health. According to new research, short bursts of daily activity that make you huff and puff could help reduce the risk of cancer.

These activities could include everything from vigorous housework and carrying heavy shopping around the supermarket to bursts of power walking and playing high-energy games with children. The study found that a total of just four and a half minutes of strenuous activity - broken up into bursts of about a minute each - during everyday tasks could lower the risk of cancer by 18% overall and by up to 32% for some cancers linked to physical activity.

Lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, of the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Australia, said: "We know the majority of middle-aged people don't regularly exercise, which puts them at increased cancer risk, but it's only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living.

"It's quite remarkable to see that upping the intensity of daily tasks for as little as four to five minutes a day, done in short bursts of around one minute each, is linked to an overall reduction in cancer risk." The study, which was published in Jama Oncology, tracked the daily activities of more than 22,000 patients who do not exercise using data from wearable devices. The clinical health records of the group were then monitored by researchers for nearly seven years to monitor for cancer.

Cancer types associated with exercise are those where cancer risk is higher when one does not exercise. The cancers associated with physical activity included liver, lung, kidney, gastric cardia (a type of stomach cancer), endometrial, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, colorectal, head and neck, bladder, breast and esophageal adenocarcinoma (cancer of the oesophagus).

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Researchers found that as few as four to five minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (Vilpa) was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk compared with those who undertook no Vilpa. This term was developed by researchers at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre to characterise the vigorous, one-minute-long bursts of activity we all engage in throughout the day."Vilpa is a bit like applying the principles of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to your everyday life," Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis said.

Billie Schwab Dunn