Hospital and Well-Being-Exercise helps prevent endometrial cancer
A study published in the July 1999 issue of the International Journal of Cancer shows that women who exercise and maintain a healthy weight early in life have a reduced risk of endometrial cancer later in life, compared to their sedentary, overweight counterparts.
This study of more than 11,000 women in the Swedish Twin Registry shows that lifestyle factors such as exercise, weight gain, and childbirth appear to play a larger role than genetics in the development of endometrial cancer. The women answered questions about their lifestyle in 1967, and the researchers found that 133 of those women developed endometrial cancer by 1992.
Factors and risks
After looking at the women's lifestyle factors, it was found that having physical activity significantly decreased the risk of endometrial cancer. Having a higher weight in early adulthood and middle age increased risk, while having children decreased the risk.
In order to determine the role of genetics in the risk, researchers compared fraternal twins to identical twins, since identical twins have identical genetic makeup while fraternal twins are no more closely related than any sibling pairs. The researchers found that environmental effects are of greater importance than genetics, which are modest at most.
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