Smoke in the Past? Boosting Your Fitness Now Can Cut Your Lung Cancer Risk
Former smokers with high levels of fitness are less likely to develop lung cancer than those who are not as fit, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Among former smokers, each increase of 1 metabolic equivalent of task (MET) during the treadmill tests resulted in a 13 percent lower risk of developing lung cancer.
Current smokers also experienced a boost in lung cancer prevention as well.
Previous research has found that a former smoker’s risk of lung cancer drops about 39 percent within five years of quitting, even for those who once lit up heavily. But, that study added, risk still remains more than three times higher after 25 years than those who never smoked.
You can’t go back in time to stub out the cigs. But there is something you can do to help protect your lungs going forward: Get moving, as a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests.
In the study, researchers looked at the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and lung cancer rates among men who used to smoke and those who still do.
Researchers assessed nearly 3,000 men—about half were former smokers—with an average age of 59. They followed them for 11 years, and determined their cardiorespiratory fitness through treadmill tests, in which exercise capacity was determined using metabolic equivalents (METs), a measure of how much oxygen is consumed during activity. METs often provide a good snapshot of how well oxygen is supplying muscles during exercise, an indication of fitness efficiency.
Of the 99 participants diagnosed with lung cancer in that timeframe, 79 of them died within five years of diagnosis. Among former smokers, each increase of 1 MET during the treadmill tests resulted in a 13 percent lower risk of developing lung cancer. And the higher their fitness levels, the lower their risks—moderate and high level groups saw lower risk scores of 51 percent and 77 percent respectively.
Current smokers saw major benefits as well, with each 1-MET increase linked to 18 percent lower risk compared to other current smokers who didn’t have increased fitness levels. Moderate-to-high fitness levels had lower risk scores of 84 percent to 85 percent.
“The takeaway here is that improving or maintaining fitness levels are super important for overall health and chronic disease prevention, including reducing risk for mortality,” said lead author Baruch Vainshelboim, Ph.D., of Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.
Although there has been recent research about the value of “movement snacks” that suggest all activity—from sprinting up a flight of stairs to puttering around a garden—counts toward a larger amount, Vainshelboim told Runner’s World that this research emphasizes the importance of focused workouts.
“People need to do aerobic exercise for 20 to 30 minutes, three to five times per week, and not only increasing physical activity levels by taking a walk to the supermarket,” he said, adding that moderate-to-intense activity can include running and riding.
In terms of the mechanism that makes exercise such a cancer fighter, Vainshelboim said it’s not fully understood, but that exercise is known to improve physiological functioning in many ways, including an improved metabolic state, enhanced immune system operation, and a more balanced and regulated hormonal system. All of these can have a major impact on cancer prevention, he said.
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Although this study was only done on men, it’s likely that results would be similar for women, although Vainshelboim believes that further research would need to support that claim. However, he and other researcher just published a study in Journal of Sport and Health Science in September that found women—in general, not just smokers or former smokers—with higher cardiorespiratory fitness rates had lower risk of developing any cancer.
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