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Cycling to Work Can Cut Cancer and Heart Disease, Says Study

  • April 20, 2017

If you’re looking for an alternative to the gym to get your exercise in, you might want to consider cycling to your job. Many studies show that exercise helps stave off chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer, and now a five-year study on commuters in the United Kingdom shows that workers who cycled to the job had cut their risk of death from any cause by 41 percent; their risk of cancer by 45 percent; and their risk of heart disease by 46 percent, BBC.com reports.

Time and again, study after study proves just how much exercise influences disease prevention. Whether your walk, bike, run or engage in high intensity interval training (HIIT), it’s all good when it comes to your health and wellbeing. Exercise has even been shown to lower your risk of a hard-to-treat form of heart failure by 11 to 19 percent.

In a breast cancer study, survivors who exercised regularly reduced their risk of dying from breast cancer by 40 percent compared to those who didn’t exercise. Overall, the degree to which exercise cuts your cancer risk varies depending on the type of cancer and other factors, but the data shows physically active individuals have a 20 percent to 55 percent lower risk of cancer than their sedentary peers.

While the type of exercise you choose is up to you, the key is staying active.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves short periods of intense exercise broken up by periods of lower-intensity rest, may actually be among the most beneficial form of exercise and is recommended by the Mayo Clinic for heart patients. One reason HIIT is highly successful is because it takes only a short amount of time and fits perfectly into your busy schedule.