Category Archives: Move More

12 Challenges for a Leaner, Healthier You

Posted on by
2

NAP-Logo-2-ColorCould you meet the New American Plate (NAP) challenge?

So far over 1,500 people from around the US (and the world) are ready to start. Beginning next week, these Challengers are stepping up to the NAP-PlateNew American Plate Challenge to lose weight healthfully and lower their cancer risk through healthier eating and increased physical activity.

Here’s how it works:

Every Monday for 12 weeks, you’ll get a specific challenge (diet or physical activity) that helps you move towards the NAP way of eating or to the AICR recommendation to get at least 30 minutes daily of moderate physical activity.

  1. Every Friday, you will receive a teaser email to prepare for the upcoming weekly challenge, describing what you need to buy at the grocery store or ways to prepare for moving more.
  2. The Monday morning email will reveal that week’s challenge and you’ll find more specifics, including tips, tools and recipes on the NAP Challenge website to help you meet the week’s goals. Continue reading →

New Analysis: Lifting Weights Helps Survivors

Posted on by
Reply

Dumbbell-SP005620_7_300wWhen you read about the health benefits of exercise for cancer survivors it’s common to lump all exercise together. After all, there’s no bad form of exercise.

A new review of the research now suggests that lifting weights, sit-ups and other forms of resistance exercises can help survivors both during and after treatment gain muscle strength, reduce body fat, and improve fatigue.

The improved effects seen with arm strength and body fat were most pronounced in survivors who engaged in low to moderate intensity exercises compared to those of higher intensity.

Doing resistance exercises at least two times per week led to survivors able to increase the amount of weight lifted, on average, 34 pounds (15.5 kilograms) for legs and 16 pounds (7.3 kilograms) for arms.

The study was published in the early online issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Continue reading →

Study: How Exercise May Decrease Breast Cancer Risk

Posted on by
Reply

For postmenopausal breast cancer, there’s a strong body of evidence that shows exercising reduces the risk. But cancer can take years to develop. A new study that may help explain the link now suggests that when young women jog and are aerobically activecanstockphoto13529535 it causes changes in estrogen metabolism, which then plays a role in reducing later breast cancer risk.

The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, is one of only a few clinical trials to focus on exercise and estrogen metabolism among younger women.

Study researchers wanted to focus on estrogen metabolism because the majority of breast cancers are related to the hormone estrogen. Research suggests that a higher lifetime exposure to estrogen increases a woman’s risk for breast cancer. Yet there are many forms of estrogen and they appear to play a different role in risk.

Lab studies have suggested that two of the forms, estradiol and estrone, play a role in cancer development. These forms of estrogen break down or metabolize into compounds and it’s the ratio of these metabolites that studies have suggested may influence breast cancer risk.

For this study, researchers randomly divided almost 400 sedentary young women into two groups: about half of the women were asked to exercise regularly and the others continued with their inactive lifestyle. All the women were premenopausal and the groups included women who were roughly the same age and weight. Continue reading →