Question: Does exercise help prevent colon cancer?
There's no denying that exercise is good for you. The couch potato in me would like to see a study every once in a while declaring otherwise, but that just doesn't happen. Exercise helps keep us healthy and yes, it helps prevent colon cancer.
Answer: Your large intestine is kind of like a sewage plant. It recycles the stuff your body can use and stores the waste for disposal. The longer waste sits in the colon or rectum, the longer toxic materials have to leach out of the solidifying stool and back into your tissues.
Exercise gets your body moving, which gets the waste in your body moving. This is because exercise stimulates peristalsis, a wave-like muscular contraction that helps push waste through your colon.
Research indicates that exercising can decrease colon cancer risk by up to 40%. Exercise also tends to reduce the incidence of other risk factors for colon cancer, like obesity and diabetes.
For more information, please read Exercising to Prevent Colon Cancer.
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