Research

Hormonal

Higher levels of objectively measured physical activity are causally associated with a significantly lower risk of developing breast and colorectal cancers.

To lower your risk of breast and colorectal cancer, focus on increasing your daily movement rather than intense, time-consuming workouts. The research indicates that a modest increase in average daily acceleration—equivalent to adding about 50 minutes of moderate activity (like brisk walking) or 8 minutes of vigorous activity (like running) per week—is causally linked to significantly lower cancer risks. This benefit appears to be independent of weight loss, suggesting that the act of moving itself triggers protective biological mechanisms.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In this MR analysis, higher levels of genetically predicted accelerometer-measured physical activity were associated with lower risks of breast cancer and colorectal cancer... These findings indicate that population-level increases in physical activity may lower the incidence of these two commonly diagnosed cancers, and support the promotion of physical activity for cancer prevention.
Nikos Papadimitriou et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

Why this rating

Mendelian randomization provides strong evidence for causality, mitigating confounding and reverse causation common in observational studies, though genetic instruments explained a small fraction of variability.

Source

Physical activity and risks of breast and colorectal cancer: a Mendelian randomisation analysis

Nikos Papadimitriou et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14389-8

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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