Avoid cancer? Walk this way

IT'S BEEN well-documented that exercise can help prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and, yes, even cancer.

It can probably do more for your health than anything else (and help you look youthfully svelte, to boot).

Here's another example. A study released early this month demonstrates that simply walking for an hour a day can reduce a postmenopausal woman's risk of developing breast cancer by a stunning 14 percent.

And that's walking at a leisurely 3 mph pace - "without any other recreational physical activities, just walking," said Alpa V. Patel, a senior epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society and senior author of the study.

Women who worked up a sweat during 10 hours a week of activity fared even better, with a 25% reduction in breast-cancer risk.

Patel's study used data from 73,615 postmenopausal women ages 50 to 74, gathered over the past two decades. About 9 percent did no physical activity at all, but 47 percent were walkers.

And the walkers were winners! The decrease in breast-cancer risk for hour-a-day walkers (compared with women who walked three hours or less a week) held constant, regardless of whether the women were overweight, obese or using hormone-replacement therapy, Patel said.

"You don't have to be a marathon runner to reduce your risk for breast cancer," she said. And you don't need to walk yourself skinny.

Just walk.

What a simple, encouraging message to share with my readers as we wrap up another Breast Cancer Awareness Month!