Resistance training and cancer.

There are a lot of people that ask why strength training is important. I've heard others say that people do it to simply to look better or just to get stronger, even when they really don't need it. Well, certainly people go to the gym to look better and get stronger, but I bet that most people who strength train would also say that it makes them feel better. [The same is true of cardiovascular exercise, by the way.] There's no feeling in the world like getting in a good, solid pump out of a workout.

So I've always wondered if that good-feeling translates into something more meaningful. As a budding oncologist [I'm studying to be a cancer doctor], I was a little surprised when I read today that stronger men tend to be less likely to die from cancer. It caught my eye. I wanted to check the facts, so I went to the literature and did a little sleuthing to find the source.

Here's the article in the British Medical Journal:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/337/jul01_2/a439.pdf

It's definitely worth checking out. At a glance the study looks decent. It is titled: Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. I did not do a full critical review of the research, but basically the authors surveyed, tested, and followed a relatively large number of men, and examined results taking into account several potentially confounding variables. The results were pretty cool. It turns out that the stronger a guy is, the lower his all-cause mortality, and the lower his risk of dying from cancer.

They write: "Muscular strength was significantly and inversely associated with risk of death from all causes and cancer after controlling for potential confounders, including cardiorespiratory fitness." And they state at the end: "It might be possible to reduce all cause mortality among men by promoting regular resistance training involving the major muscle groups of the upper and lower body two or three days a week. Resistance training should be a complement to rather than a replacement for aerobic exercise."

So the next time someone tells you that you are working out just to look good, remind them that your weight training is most likely lowering your risk of dying from cancer too.