Prostate cancer is nearly inevitable for men. Many
doctors believe that ALL men will get prostate cancer, if they live long
enough. The only good news is that most prostate cancers grow so slowly that
they do not require invasive treatment. A new research project has found that
intense exercise can slow the (already slow) growth of prostate cancer cells.
Researchers in Sweden decided to measure the impact of
intense exercise on prostate cancer. This was driven by the observation that
the incidence of prostate cancer tracks the relative affluence of the country.
The “well off” countries have a 20 times higher incidence of prostate cancer
compared to less developed countries.
It is difficult to test theories about cancer cell growth
with human subjects. This particular study, recently published in the journal
PLOS One, used human subjects for the “exercise” portion of the study, but lab
mice for the “cancer cell” portion of the study. Tough on the lab mice, yes,
but at least no athletes were harmed in the production of these results.
The experiment was straight-forward. Ten volunteers had
blood drawn before and immediately after intense exercise. The exercise
consisted of peddling a stationary bicycle for an hour, at a speed that ensured
near exhaustion. Prostate cancer cells were bathed in the drawn blood serum and
their relative growth measured.
The results were encouraging. The cancer cells exposed to
blood serum drawn after intense exercise showed nearly a third less growth than
cancer cells exposed to blood serum drawn from resting individuals. Did the
exercise kill the cancer? No, not at all. But it did slow the growth
significantly. And with prostate cancer, this may be all it takes to live a
long and healthy life.
No comments:
Post a Comment