High Muscle Strength Drops Cancer Chances by 30%
- Thread starter Baron
- Start date
Right. So, one percentage point more than you. Got it. You win.
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I had a chance to use one of those, approximately one year ago. I was impressed by the results, especially because I had the impression that those impedance measurements are always highly incorrect. This one had it pretty accurate. Not only that, it also recorded correctly that my right arm and leg have somewhat less muscle mass than the left side. I am stronger in my left side than right side.
Next month I will visit that hospital again. Hopefully I get to use it once more. Then I can see the changes over time.
Please let us know how it goes. And if you have an opportunity to also get tested on an InBody scale, I'd be interested to know if there is a meaningful difference.
So what's the scoop? And did you have a chance to compare the results to those of the InBody scale?
Build muscle mass and muscle strength, and you'll also build up protection against cancer. Researchers at the University of South Carolina reached this conclusion from a study they published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. The men who could shift heavier weights with bench presses and leg presses were less likely to die from cancer.
Muscle strength
The men had undergone a thorough fitness and medical check up in the eighties, so the researchers knew how fit their subjects were and how much fat they were carrying.
The researchers first published results of their study in 2008, reporting that strong men live longer and that muscle strength in particular protects against cancer. If you have average or high muscular strength your chance of developing cancer is thirty percent lower than if your strength level is low. A high strength level protects slightly better than an average strength level, but the difference is negligible.
The researchers discovered that muscle strength reduces the chance of developing a fatal form of cancer regardless of your bodyweight. The graph below shows the protective effect of muscle strength for different BMIs. Black = low strength level; grey = average strength level; white = high strength level.
Fat
Dividing the subjects up according to body fat produced the same results. You're better off with a lower fat percentage, but even if you have a bit more fat in your body, muscle mass still has a protective effect.
Fitness
Fitness protects against cancer. Best of all is being fit and strong: if you're not fit, the protective effect of your muscular strength is less.
The researchers also looked at different types of cancer in their study. Body strength protected against all sorts of cancer except for prostate cancer. The protective effect was greatest for cancer of the digestive tract.
The researchers think that the protective effect of muscle mass comes from the fact that muscle cells remove anabolic hormones from the body. The hormones that are responsible for muscle growth, such as IGF-1, also stimulate the growth of tumours.
Conclusion
The researchers don't beat about the bush when it comes to the implications of their study. "It is biologically plausible to reduce cancer mortality death rates among men by promoting regular resistance training involving the major muscle groups of the upper and lower extremities at least 2 days per week", they write. "Resistance and aerobic exercise should complement each other."
Source:
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 May;18(5):1468-76.
Cut your odds down even more, I read somewhere cancer feeds on processed sugar so cut that out too and we're cooking....
