Cancer: A good night's sleep and exercise can reduce the risk

Regular exercise ‘significantly’ reduces the risk of cancer, as does a seven-hour sleep, say researchers.  Overall, a healthy lifestyle can reduce your chances of developing cancer by 20 per cent, or one-fifth.

Researchers from the US National Cancer Institute emphasise the importance of seven hours’ sleep.  A disturbed and sleepless night can undo all the good achieved from exercise.

The research team analysed the lifestyles of around 6,000 women over a 10-year period, during which time 604 developed cancer, and 186 of these with breast cancer.  Women who regularly suffered a sleepless night were 47 per cent more likely to develop cancer.

(Source: American Association for Cancer Research Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, Washington, D.C., Nov. 16-18, 2008).