Apart from diabetes, heart diseases, nephritis, pneumonia, Alzheimer, accidents, and cardiovascular diseases, cancer is the other disease that is accounting for many deaths in the United States. Cancer accounts for 556k deaths in the United States every year. Various types of cancer affect people, and among them, lung cancer which is the most common followed by prostate, breast, and colon cancer. Lung cancer is affecting women at a very high rate. According to National Cancer Institute, physical activity plays a significant role in cancer prevention. Therefore, this essay aims at discussing the role of physical health in the prevention of cancer.
Scientists are still in the process of investigating how physical exercise reduces the chances of getting cancer. However, there is existing literature on the relationship between physical activities and cancer reduction. Cancer is caused by things such as high levels of some hormones in the body, poor functioning of the immune system, and lower levels of natural antioxidants (Friedenreich et al., 2016).
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Researchers have found that there is a strong connection between physical fitness and low cancer rates. Physical activity has been known to slow or prevent the development of cancer, especially the colon cancer. When an individual does exercises, the chances of the person developing colon cancer are very minimal. Physical activity leads to energy balance, regulation of insulin, and hormone metabolism (Moore et al., 2016 ) . Colon cancer is one type of cancer that can be reduced by doing regular exercises as this shortens the transit time of wastes in the digestive track, reducing the exposure of the intestinal wall to the potential Cancer causing substances (Friedenreich et al., 2016). Exercise may also lower prostaglandin because higher levels of prostaglandin are associated with colon cancer.
Breast and prostate cancer are other two types of cancer that are gender specific. Breast cancer is common among the women while prostate cancer affects men. Studies have indicated that exercises lower the hormones which stimulate cell growth in the breast. Exercises also affect menstrual cycle which then lowers the rates of breast cancer. Research that was done by Stewart and Wild (2016) indicates that women who do regular exercises are rarely affected by breast cancer. The breast cancer rates among these women are reduced to 13% as opposed to women who do not do regular exercises (Stewart & Wild, 2016). For the women who do intense exercises, the cancer rates are reduced by a higher 22%. Prostate cancer affects men and is caused by elevated testosterone levels. Doing exercises reduces the testosterone levels hence reduces the risks of prostate cancer in men. According to Rock et al.,(2012), men who do regular exercises are at low risks of getting prostate cancer. This explains why men athletes are rarely affected by prostate cancer.
In summary, doing physical exercises reduces the risk of getting common types cancers that include breast, colon, and prostate among others. Since cancer is caused by high levels of some hormones, studies carried out by Stewart and Wild (2016) indicate that regular exercises lower some hormones responsible for the growth of cancer cells in the body. Cancer is also caused by poor functioning of the immune system and lower levels of natural antioxidants. Thus performing regular exercises enhances the immune system responses and increases the levels of natural antioxidants.
References
Friedenreich, C. M., Neilson, H. K., Farris, M. S., & Courneya, K. S. (2016). Physical Activity and Cancer Outcomes: A Precision Medicine Approach. Clinical Cancer Research , 22 (19), 4766-4775.
Moore SC, et al. (2016). Leisure-time physical activity and risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults. JAMA Internal Medicine . DOI:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548.
Rock, C. L., Doyle, C., Demark‐Wahnefried, W., Meyerhardt, J., Courneya, K. S., Schwartz, A. L., ... & Byers, T. (2012). Nutrition and physical activity guidelines for cancer survivors. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians , 62 (4), 242-274.
Stewart, B., & Wild, C. P. (2016). World cancer report 2014. World .
