Get in shape TO FIGHT OFF THE Big C

In the final extract from a compelling new book why you should ...

TAkIng regular exercise is one of the most important ways of staying healthy and avoiding illness — and the good news is you don’t have to go mad in Lycra to see significant results.

no special equipment is needed, either. A well-fitting pair of trainers or walking shoes is all you need to make a start on getting fitter and cutting your risk of serious diseases, cancer included.

As you’d expect, this is all based on solid science.

Several scientific reviews have estimated that at least 15 per cent of all breast cancers and 40 per cent of bowel cancers could have been prevented by regular exercise.

And you’re 30-40 per cent less likely to relapse after treatment for a primary cancer if you exercise moderately for three hours a week, found a large review of the world’s most prestigious studies by the national Cancer Institute in the U.S.

There’s also evidence that exercise can slow the progression of ongoing cancers as well as helping you to cope better with the toxicities of treatment.

And the other good news is it’s never too late to make a real difference, even if you haven’t exercised for a while.

As an oncologist who’s spent most of my professional life studying the causes and consequences of cancer, I’m convinced we are not destined to develop disease because of the genes we inherit.

In fact, I believe that the way we live our lives is far more important.

It is why I wrote my latest book, How To Live. I wanted to share my lifetime’s work on taking control of your health and cutting your risk of cancer by making simple changes to the food you eat and the way you live.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that we abandon traditional medicine — which saves lives every day. I’ve seen too many referrals of patients who’ve refused potentially successful treatments because they opted to go it alone with lifestyle strategies, with tragic results.

But the more patients I listen to and research I do, it’s clear that the little decisions made day in day out can make the difference between developing cancer or not. They can also have a profound effect on how well your body fights back if you do get it.

So it might not matter if you don’t go out for a long walk today — but it’s when days turn into weeks and months, that you store up trouble. That is why, in the last of this series to help you reduce your cancer risk, I’ve chosen to focus on living a more active life, a vital step in protecting against disease of all sorts.

Before we get started I need to warn you exactly how dangerous it is to sit down for long periods of time on a regular basis.

A 2011 study found that people who spent most of their working lives sitting at a desk increased their risk of bowel cancer by a third compared to people with physically active jobs — even if they still went to the gym once or twice a week.

And I’m afraid it’s bad news for couch potatoes, too.

A study that looked at the effects of watching TV, which followed 8,800 adults over six years, found that for every extra hour of daily television viewing, there was an increased risk of dying early from any cause by 11 per cent; for cardiovascular diseases the increased risk was 18 per cent and for cancer 9 per cent.

But every little bit really does help — taking a break from your desk every hour, walking to the shops instead of driving, going for a stroll after dinner in the evening.

And the benefits of being more active increase with the more that you do — this is still true for anyone who’s already been diagnosed with cancer.

One study, involving men with prostate cancer, found that those who walked for more than four hours a week had a better survival rate than those who walked for just two hours.

Yet research frequently shows how few of us exercise enough, particularly as we get older.

As part of a recent study conducted at Cambridge, we recorded the exercise levels of 400 elderly men with prostate cancer and were troubled to find only 4 per cent exercised at a

moderate intensity for three hours a week (this is generally accepted by doctors as the level needed to start reducing the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer)

Some had genuine reasons, such as arthritis, but many had a misplaced fear that exercise would worsen symptoms.

This is simply not the case. Even if you start slowly because you haven ’ t exercised for a while, being more active can increase the production of hor - mones that make you feel hap - pier, while improving sleep, skin tone, libido and mental activity plus slowing the biological clock embedded deep in our DNA.

You’ll not only cut your risk of cancer, or cancer returning but find that you are living a healthier and happier life, too.

HOW IT PROTECTS AGAINST DISEASE

ANY form of exercise that raises your heartbeat can help lower cholesterol levels and improve blood pressure. It also helps you to maintain a healthy weight, build muscle and improve the supply of oxygen and nutrients to your body tissues.

If you exercise outside you ’re also boosting your vitamin D levels from exposure to the sun (we know V itamin D can slow the progression and growth of cancer).

Exercise also triggers more than 180 direct biochemical changes in your body , most of them beneficial, which can have important effects on the risk of cancer and other diseases. Research found regular exercise can lower IGF (the enzyme Insulin-like Growth Factor that can make cancer cells grow rapidly) and raise cure rates. Several randomised controlled trials have shown that exercise also improves insulin sensitivity and lowers blood sugar levels — which also lowers the risk of being overweight, another can - cer risk factor.

DAMPENS DOWN THE BAD GUYS

REGulAR physical activity has a significant impact on whether or not ‘ bad’ genes that cause disease are activated as we go through life.

This was neatly demonstrated in the GEMINAl study , a pilot trial involving men with low-risk prostate cancer in the u.S.

Scientists found that a set of genes capable of transforming normal cells into cancer cells were ‘ damped down’ after an exercise and lifestyle pro - gramme. Genes that showed a marked response to exercise included those involved in DNA repair.

If you haven ’t exercised for a while, don’t feel daunted. The key is to take it in stages and not overdo it. Once you begin to see the results, you will be motivated to continue. A walk before mealtimes is great for your cir - culation and digestion as well as weight control.