Walking Reduces Breast Cancer Risk: Study

Women can cut breast cancer risk by walking seven hours a week, a latest study by American Cancer Society (ACS) suggests.

The study stated that walking can reduce chances of developing breast cancer by 14 percent and vigorous physical activity can cut down the risk by 25 percent.

Researchers collected the data of 73,615 postmenopausal women, who were a part of the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort study. These women were aged between 50 and 74 years.

They found that women engaging in regular physical activity and walking had better chances of not developing breast cancer. By the end of the study, researchers found that around 4,760 women developed breast cancer.

"We examined whether recreational physical activity, specifically walking, was associated with lower breast cancer risk," said Alpa Patel, senior epidemiologist at the ACS in Atlanta.

"Given that more than 60 per cent of women report some daily walking, promoting walking as a healthy leisure-time activity could be an effective strategy for increasing physical activity among postmenopausal women. We were pleased to find that without any other recreational activity, just walking an average of one hour per day was associated with lower risk of breast cancer in these women," Patel explained.

The experts also stated that the benefits of walking or physical activity were not influenced by body type (BMI and weight gain) or hormonal status (postmenopausal hormone use and estrogen receptor status).

They further stated that this is the first study to find benefits of walking to prevent breast cancer risk.

The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.