Breast cancer accounts for more than 20% of all cancers in women worldwide, and the issue is one of great concern for women everywhere — but a new study reveals that exercise is an effective tool in preventing breast cancer before it starts.

However, when it comes to breast cancer, it also seems the number of hours of exercise required to see the benefit was pretty significant. Study, published in the journal Cancer, compared two groups of women from two data sets within the Long Island Breast Cancer project — more than three thousand women in total, between the ages of 20 and 98, roughly half who had breast cancer and half who did not.

What researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill discovered is that women who were physically active for more than two hours a day for five days a week showed lower rates of breast cancer — even in women who have BMIs of over 30, and are considered at higher risk to start.

According to TIME, in the study, women who had had children and exercised between 10 and 19 hours per week saw the greatest benefit. Researcher Lauren McCullough said:

“I was excited by the results because as women tend to age, they get set in their habits, and think that if they haven’t been active their whole life, why start now…”

“But it’s important to show that there is research-based evidence that says that you can start exercising after menopause and still enjoy really good benefits.”

Researchers noted one point, however, about weight and breast cancer risk — women who exercised and still gained weight negated the exercise-related benefits in preventing breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Risk Significantly Drops Due to Exercise, Study Finds is a post from: The Inquisitr