Getting fitter can reduce prostate cancer risk by 35%, study finds

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/30/getting-fitter-can-reduce-prostate-cancer-risk-by-35-study-finds

by sandebert • 2 years ago

122 137 2 years ago

amatecha3• 2 years ago

Huh, so going indoor climbing 2-3x a week has not only boosted my strength and endurance, but is also apparently reducing my chance of prostate cancer?? Sweeeeet.

RockCoach2• 2 years ago

What is it with this obnoxious 'alternative' frat bro attitude among indoor climbers?

throwawaaarrgh4• 2 years ago

Chillax bruh, homie was just asking for beta.

saiya-jin4• 2 years ago

For most folks who are longer in sport, it is by far the best activity that can be done. I do in some form: hiking/camping in wilderness, swimming, biking, paragliding, climbing, via ferratas, alpinism, diving, skiing, ski touring/alpinism and few other things, on top just training with weights and running. Kids cut it significantly but I am still there.

Climbing in non-winter conditions (or indoor) and ski touring are by far the best things for me. I come happy like a toddler after a session / trip on skis. I just don't get this from typical old school team sports, or even single/duo ones.

The biggest thing isn't the physical effort part, not for me. Its exposition to your fear of death, fear of injury which are very strong emotions. You have to repeatedly overcome your biggest fear in whole life and push through, maybe 10x maybe 50x per evening. Do it for 1 or 2 decades at least 1x a week and your personality will change for the better. Also helps with various milder mental issues, not fixing them but improving (this can be said about every sport but its way more intense here).

There are other sports where you expose yourself to similar fears, but in climbing its very easy in afterwork session, without the actual risk (valid for sport climbing).

greenie_beans4• 2 years ago

idk maybe you fall in that category too. if you're a climber i'm sure a stranger has looked at you with disgust and thought, "i can't believe that alternative frat bro climber exists."

amatecha3• 2 years ago

Umm, what? I was just being a bit funny with my positive realization that my recent undertaking of a new sport has more benefits than I was previously aware. Why are you insulting me?

trash_cat• 2 years ago

Getting fitter as in working out, or losing weight...?

linsomniac• 2 years ago

"Boosting cardiorespiratory fitness by only 3%"

eterps• 2 years ago

So, 45 minutes per day?

shrimp-chimp2• 2 years ago

As in improving cardiorespiratory fitness. According to the article, a Swedish study suggests that, for men, an improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness of 3% annually may reduce risk of prostate cancer by as much as 35%. From how I understand the statements made in the article, they (the researchers) seem to emphasize regularity and intensity; that is, regularity is key, and higher intensity as substitute for duration. They also seem to primarily focus on lower-body activity (i.e. use your legs) while making it clear that activities that involve movement of both legs and arms are preferable.

danpalmer• 2 years ago

So it's the act of getting fitter, i.e. there must be a constant improvement of 3% a year, it's not good enough to get "fit" and then maintain it? Doesn't that take a huge amount of effort after the first few years?

sundvor• 2 years ago

Peter Attia's OUTLIVE is massively interesting.

Two key indicators he tracks are grip strength and VO² max. They are the product of (most typically) structured weights and cardio training respectively.

Another key thing he addresses is to actually plan for old age, i.e. to factor in how the body will lose muscle mass/ conditioning as we get older - and set eg strength targets for activities to do later in life (i.e. be able to lift grandson) and work back from there.

In other words, this means that building a solid reserve in younger years and then maintaining as well as possible is the way to go.

(To lift grandson at 85, need to be able to lift a helluva lot more at 50).

Read the book/get his audiobook would be my recommendation; I'm listening to his Audible and finding it kind of life changing.

jgrahamc• 2 years ago

Here's what seems blindingly obvious to me from everything I've read: eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life, are vital for staying healthy as you age.

vasco• 2 years ago

Social life is good for a healthy brain but there's other ways. The main benefit of "social" is not living alone so someone calls an ambulance for you when you have a stroke or a bad fall at home.

frereubu• 2 years ago

A friend of mine is a cardiac nurse and get massively frustrated by the overly complex regimens that people follow while ignoring the obvious stuff. e.g. going for low-gluten diets while drinking too much alcohol and not exercising enough. In terms of food I've always loved Michael Pollen's description of healthy eating as opposed to fad diets: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

pauln994• 2 years ago

I think Pollen should have said "Eat real food", and stopped there.

Then our appetite will take care of itself, and won't require conscious - and ultimately - futile endeavour.

And eating meat's fine (from a health perspective, if not ethical necessarily). We've been eating it for a couple of millions of years.

throwawaaarrgh4• 2 years ago

Except that everyone's body is different, and sometimes you really should be on a particular diet of some kind. Ask your doctor what to eat, eat that. When they say "stop drinking", "cut back the salt", "eat more fiber", etc, do it.

MattGaiser• 2 years ago

I don't think there is much disagreement on how to be healthier.

The problem is how to be healthier without it costing too much in terms of effort, pain, sacrifice, etc.

ulfw• 2 years ago

What does gluten have to do with heart health?

ak_1112• 2 years ago

The extreme all meat diet have only started gaining wide mainstream traction (as far as I can tell) only over the last 6-8 years (and for some reason seems to overlap strongly with certain segment of crypto and MAGA population).

So it will be interesting to track progress in the population who committed to it in the next few years since I think it takes a decade or so for a diet to start exhibiting long-term health effects in a significant sample.

Anecdotally from my small group of 10 friends that I know who committed to it, 3 quit it after a few months because they couldn't give up carbs, 4 still swear by it after a few years, and 3 said that it was causing them health problems around the year mark so they gave it up.

infecto• 2 years ago

How is low gluten obvious?

blitzar4• 2 years ago

eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life

can reduce cancer / heart disease / stroke / lung disease / early death / every other known ailment risk by X0%

ddalex• 2 years ago

I've read that regular ejaculations reduce prostate cancer risk.

Perhaps getting fit and eating right lead to more regular ejaculations by more easily encountering sexual partners ?

manfre• 2 years ago

You assume a partner is needed.

blitzar4• 2 years ago

That risk of prostate cancer was reduced by 20 percent for men who ejaculated 21 times a month, compared to men who ejaculated four to seven times a month [0], A similar Australian study found the risk was reduced by 36 percent when men ejaculated seven times a week [1].

You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket.

[0] https://bjui-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.104...

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15069045/

philshem• 2 years ago

eating a balanced diet, staying fit (strength and cardio), having a healthy social life ...

and sleep

throwawaaarrgh4• 2 years ago

Adults need less sleep as they age. Still useful to have it, of course...

bregma• 2 years ago

You want to live forever? Don't do any of the things that make living worthwhile.

simmerup2• 2 years ago

There’s more to life than processed food and sitting on a couch

hgomersall3• 2 years ago

Not doing exercise makes living worthwhile?

LoveMortuus2• 2 years ago

I do think that people underestimate the dangers of prolonged stress.

My hypothesis is that stress is the real killed. This might be survivorship bias, but I often see people that are above average old, smoking. That's why I think that perhaps the reduction of stress that smoking provides, could be more beneficial than the negative side. We do know that nicotine does have a neuroprotective effect and smoking does include a specific way of breathing.

I'm not saying smoking is good or that anyone should smoke. But I do think it's worth investigating.

I personally try to avoid stress whenever possible, of course, within reason.

chii2• 2 years ago

often see people that are above average old, smoking.

it's quite a sample bias, because those who you see smoking are likely quite healthy and thus is _able_ to smoke to old age (or won a genetic lottery to be able to withstand smoking).

What you need to count is how many people smoke, and then the % of them dying earlier than those who don't. Otherwise, sample bias will give you the wrong conclusions, esp. if this bias is affirming your own world view.

danjc• 2 years ago

Might be helpful to think of stress as a response as opposed to a stressor which is an input.

The more control you can exert over your response, the better.

hgomersall3• 2 years ago

Weird, I often comment how rarely I see old people smoking. I assumed the smokers had all died early.

Attummm5• 2 years ago

The statement, although true, is missing nuance. For example, a balanced diet is ambiguous.

Does a balanced diet include fast food? How much ultra-processed food? How many carbs? Do we need to change the above answers with age or when someone is diabetic or has high blood pressure?

Thus, even though almost everyone will agree with the balanced diet statement from the outset, what constitutes a balanced diet will yield a diversity of answers.

sigmoid104• 2 years ago

Does a balanced diet include fast food? How much ultra-processed food?

There seems to be some confusion here. "Balanced" means balanced in terms of micro and macro-nutrients that the body needs. Not balanced in the ratios of ultra-processed junk food and healthy food.

wazoox• 2 years ago

A sane diet includes exactly zero ultra processed food, I think the data is pretty clear now.

sod• 2 years ago

IMHO the base framework can and must be simple and unnuanced and easy to remember:

* eat as little and never drink: sugar, alcohol

* seek: stuff that feeds you and your gut biome and doesn't cause diarrhea (aka avoid ultra-processed food)

* bonus: at least once a week: fish, salad, nuts, fruits

Sure, thats not nuanced. But the message is simple: If you eat/drink sugar, alcohol or processed foods, then your body will degrade faster and your biological organism will run on pain, inflammation and fatigue.

greenie_beans4• 2 years ago

Does a balanced diet include fast food? How much ultra-processed food?

omg shut up, this sort of contrarian semantic shit doesn't make you look smart like you intend. everybody knows that fast food isn't a good component of diet. everybody knows how they can improve their very unique and individualized diet. it's like telling a smoker that cigarettes are bad for you.

matsemann3• 2 years ago

The problem with that statement is that it's basically a tautology, since the words "balanced", "healthy" etc. hide all the complexities. What is a "balanced" diet? What is moderately fit? What is the definition of a healthy social life?

medo-bear2• 2 years ago

Here is my 'common sense' attempt:

What is a "balanced" diet?

Eating all the necessary macro and micro nutrients in bounds of callorie requirements.

What is moderately fit?

Walk for 5km without issue. Do 10 pushups. Do 20 situps. Do 20 squats.

What is the definition of a healthy social life?

Dont let work be your whole life. To many people free time pretty much boils down to having dinner and going to bed. Instead engage more in socializing outdoors.

ctrw2• 2 years ago

The fit question is pretty easy: able to pass the 1940 army fitness test: https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/are-yo...

The others aren't and are person dependent.

brodouevencode5• 2 years ago

hide all the complexities

Does it? There are some things that are obvious to anyone paying attention. We can tease out details ad nauseum but what is the point in that if you can get 95% of the way there just by being sensible.

kerrsclyde• 2 years ago

having a healthy social life

This is almost always omitted when it comes to health advice I feel it is one of the most important factors. Loneliness kills!

upofadown• 2 years ago

The study only considered cardiorespiratory fitness. So from what we know from the study, eating a balanced diet, being strong, and having a healthy social life might all cause prostate cancer.

_dark_matter_• 2 years ago

Anyone who regularly lifts weights enough to "be strong" will have far above average cardiorespitory fitness. For example, cardio became my limiting factor deadlifting, and I had to start incorporating more running in order to lift more. Heavy weights can work out your cardio system to a surprising degree!

ivandenysov• 2 years ago

Totally agree. Also Peter Attia in his “Outlive” book insists that staying fit is more important than a balanced diet.

rafaelero5• 2 years ago

That doesn't sound correct. I don't think that athletes live longer than generally health conscious people.

kashunstva2• 2 years ago

Original study: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2024/01/03/bjspo...

world2vec• 2 years ago

I would guess that getting fitter can reduce pretty much all health risks by similar percentages.

isaacfrond• 2 years ago

The absolute first thing you should think with articles like this: is the journalist confusing correlation and causation???

And sure enough, the main finding according the scientific paper [1]

In this cohort of 177 709 men followed up for a mean of 9.6 years, higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with a lower risk of colon cancer incidence. A lower risk of death from lung and prostate cancer was also noted.

Keyword being associated. So one needs to wonder, could the causation run the other way? Perhaps, people with cancer are apt to exercise less. In fact you only need to exercise a little bit less to get to a level of 3% less fitness. Seems an entirely reasonable explanation. If so, this means that exercising more would not reduce the chance of getting cancer. Since cancer is a bit of a dice gamble, that does not seem impossible to me.

Yet a further alternative, maybe exercise and lower cancer risk are both caused by something else. Some adjustments were made for various factors, but maybe if you are well-off, you tend to live better, leading to higher fitness and to lower cancer.

So, good to know, but the Guardian article reads way to much in this.

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

benmmurphy• 2 years ago

I think a lot of 'good' habits are often correlated together so it's always suspect when there is a claim that a 'good' habit has some positive health outcome. it could even be worse where the 'good' habits have no effect and the 'good' habits are just a side effect of a 'good' package of genes which is what really produces the positive health outcome.

yread• 2 years ago

Especially for prostate cancer which has relatively low death rate. It's not the prostate cancer that kills old men, it's the complications around it

qweqwe14• 2 years ago

Having a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of diseases. Who knew!

xyst• 2 years ago

I lost 30+ lbs recently. Feeling great. More energetic and focused. My journey involved:

- opting to exercise more. I adopted a dog to help motivate to go on daily walks. No gym membership required.

- opting to use public transportation where necessary and use a car when only necessary (prefer biking or walking now). Helps me stay fit and active without having to go to a gym.

- significant changes in diet. Reduced consumption of meat. Reduced consumption of sugar and artificially sweetened foods and replacing with fruits. Increased consumption of more leafy vegetables and opting for more healthier options such as salmon (omega-3s, ”healthy fats”).

- intermittent fasting. Very difficult at first but was able to find my groove after a couple of weeks

- added a few OTC supplements as part of routine as recommended by doc (vitamin d3 , fish oil)

I am fortunate enough to have been able to do this without any supplemental Rx medications like off label usage of “ozempic”.

I will admit it did take some time. Maybe 2-3 months to begin to reap the fruits of my labor but it was definitely worth it.

bhpm• 2 years ago

Maybe 2-3 months to begin to reap the fruits of my labor but it was definitely worth it.

I’m glad you wrote this part. I think many people get discouraged because they see ads where people lose x lbs in y days. But, it’s important to remember that change is hard. You didn’t get to where you are in a few days and you won’t change yourself sustainably in a few days.

sandebert• 2 years ago

30 lbs = 13.6 kg

Getting fitter can reduce prostate cancer risk by 35%, study finds

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