Walking could prevent 37,000 UK deaths

Almost 37,000 deaths in England could be prevented every year if people walked for just two-and-a-half hours every week, according to a new report.

A further 12,000 cases of people needing emergency hospital treatment for heart disease could be stopped and almost 7000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented.

The study, from the Ramblers and Macmillan Cancer Support, also showed that just 150 minutes a week of moderate activity - such as cycling or fast walking - could prevent almost 5000 cases of bowel cancer and almost 295,000 cases of diabetes.

'People who stay active are less stressed, sleep better, have a 30 per cent lower risk of getting depressed and reduce their risk of developing dementia,' the report - Walking Works - said.

It added: 'Physical inactivity now rivals smoking as one of the nation's biggest health problems. Today it's responsible for 17 per cent of early deaths in the UK.

'Physical inactivity is the principle cause of a huge number of common health conditions including 10 per cent of heart disease cases, 13 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases, 18 per cent of colon (bowel) cancer cases and 17 per cent of breast cancer cases.

'But that's not all. Research reveals that being inactive increases your chances of developing cancer, heart disease or having a stroke by 25-30 per cent and can take three to five years off your life.'

Britain's National Health Service recommendations are for adults aged 19 to 64 to try and be active every day. This includes at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week.

The report comes after a study published last week found that postmenopausal women who walk for an hour a day can cut their chance of breast cancer by 14 per cent. Those who were more active cut the risk by 25 per cent.

source: skynews.com.au

Women smokers who quit before 40 gain nine years in lifespan

PARIS - Women can add nine years to their lives by quitting smoking before the age of 40 but still face a 20-percent higher death rate than those who never smoked, a study said Saturday.

Published in The Lancet, a survey of nearly 1.2 million women in Britain showed that smoking throughout adulthood chopped on average 11 years off lifespan.

These results echoed the findings of earlier research conducted on men.

Among women who kicked the habit before the age of 40, the researchers measured an average lifespan gain of more than nine years compared with those who never stopped.

For those who quit before 30 the gains were even bigger -- about 10 years.

"Whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life," study co-author Richard Peto of the University of Oxford said.

But the paper warned this did not mean that it was safe to continue smoking until 40 before quitting.

"Women who do so have throughout the next few decades [of their lives] a mortality rate 1.2 times that of never-smokers. This is a substantial excess risk, causing one in six of the deaths among these ex-smokers."

In Europe and the United States, the popularity of smoking reached its peak among women in the 1960s, decades later than for men.

The Lancet study is one of the most extensive probes into the impacts of smoking on this generation of women, the first likely to have smoked substantially throughout their adult lives.

The research is part of a vast survey that enrolled 1.2 million women in the UK between 1996 and 2001. The volunteers were asked to detail their smoking history, and were followed for an average of 12 years.

The women were on average 55 years old when they signed up. Twenty percent of them were smokers, 28 percent ex-smokers, while 52 percent had never smoked.

The researchers found that the group of women who continued smoking had three times the overall mortality rate of never-smokers.

While the risks increased with the amount smoked, "Even those smoking fewer than 10 cigarettes per day... had double the overall mortality rate than never-smokers," warned the study.

It also cautioned against so-called "light" cigarettes, smoked by most of the women in the study.

"Low-tar cigarettes are not low-risk cigarettes and... more than half of those who smoke them will eventually be killed by them," the authors warned.

The key causes of death among smokers were chronic lung disease, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease.

source: abs-cbnnews.com