Daily Housework Cuts Down Chances of Cancer

Staying in the best physical condition possible is extremely beneficial for the health and overall wellbeing, as countless studies have shown throughout the years. However, staying fit also plays an important role in decreasing the chances of developing breast cancer, also known as women’s silent enemy. As a new study quoted by the Daily Mail says, doing physically stimulating chores around the house every single day past menopause decreases the chances of getting cancer.

Women who do a fair amount of housework every day are 17 percent less exposed to the risk of breast cancer, as opposed to those ladies who rarely leave the sofa or spend their spare time in less-engaging activities, researchers have found. However, it seems a distinction must be made here in the degree of difficulty of the task performed, since only medium-intensity to vigorous chores will return results in terms of cutting down the chances of cancer.

“But not any sort of exercise will do. Scientists prescribe ‘moderate-to-vigorous’ activities such as heavy housework, gardening and hiking. Tennis, cycling, swimming, brisk walking and fast dancing, aerobics, and jogging also cut the mustard. But ‘light intensity’ pursuits such as bowling, table tennis, fishing, slow walking and light gardening do not make the grade.” the Daily Mail writes.

However, previous research has shown a connection between any type of exercise and the risk of developing breast cancer, as we also informed you back in March. Physically fit women are safer from cancer than their counterparts who do not work out or lead generally sedentary lives, as a study conducted between 1970 and 2001 on 14,000 women aged 20-83 has shown. What this means is that it’s not necessarily housework that can protect us from breast cancer, but rather any type of exercise, one might infer.

“Women in the study’s lowest fitness category were nearly three times more likely to die from breast cancer than women in the most fit group. With more than 40,000 women dying each year from this disease, finding a strong association between fitness, which can be improved by the relatively inexpensive lifestyle intervention of regular physical activity, such as walking, is exciting.” Dr. Steve Blair, a USC researcher and former president of the American College of Sports Medicine, was saying back in March on the findings of the study.