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This might sound like very bad news for women who are tied to their chairs at the office all day long, but new research has proved that there might be a link between breast cancer and prolonged sitting.
However, the researchers warn that it is important for women to use their free time wisely because, according to their study, there is a ten percent higher risk of getting cancer if they decide to sit on the couch and watch TV instead of doing something that involves more physical activity.
It seems that the types of cancer that these women are most at risk to develop are breast cancer or ovarian cancer.
In order to reach such conclusions, the researchers looked at the data collected from more than 77,000 women and more than 69,000 men who had enrolled n the study conducted by Alpa Patel: the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort.
It was reported that between 1992 and 2009 around 12,000 women and 18,500 out of the participants to the study men were diagnosed with a form of cancer from 1992 to 2009.
One of the study’s aim was to determine the factors that are most likely to contribute to the development of various forms of cancer. While in the case of men, leisure time activities that involved sitting had no impact on their acquiring a tumor of some sort, in the case of women, things were slightly different.
Even if further research still needs to be carried out to determine whether the same results could be recorded if a larger amount of people was considered, it hardly comes as a surprise that the sedentary lifestyle is associated with cancer.
What is indeed new is the fact that only women seem to be affected by it in terms of developing cancer forms.
“The higher risk was present even after taking into account body mass index (BMI), physical activity, and other factors,” said lead study author Alpa Patel.
The most valuable lesson people can draw from the study, which was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is the fact that they should take advantage of the little time they spend outside the office to do as much physical activity as possible in order to avoid getting sick, not only with cancer but with many other diseases that constantly threaten their health.
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