A study conducted on more than 30,000 post-menopausal women showed that, intense physical activity ranging from housework to jogging protected against breast cancer even among those who don’t have a higher risk. The effect was clearest among lean women.

“We know that being overweight puts women at increased risk of breast cancer. What our study shows is that even among women without this increased risk, if they exercise they can get some benefit.” said Michael Leitzmann, who led the study.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, according to the American Cancer Society. The group estimates about 465,000 women died of breast cancer globally in 2007 and 1.3 million new cases were diagnosed.

Leitzmann used questionnaires to find out, how often the women exercised vigorously. All participants were healthy when the study started. After 11 years, researchers found that overall the volunteers who exercised, were 13 percent less prone to have developed breast cancer.

The reduced risk was even higher, up to 30 percent, when the researchers compared only women of standard weight. “The relationship was much stronger among leaner women,” he added.

The researchers did not look at why exercise reduce cancer risk but Leitzmann explained that, previous studies have shown that exercise reduces estrogen levels, a known risk factor for the disease and protects the body’s general immunity.

This article is the property of http://www.HealthHeap.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed

Researchers came to know that among 87 healthy men ages 19 to 48, obese were less likely to be a father. Precisely, they exhibit hormonal variation that leads to a reduced reproductive capacity, the researchers report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

As compare to thinner men, obese had reduced levels of testosterone in their blood, as well as poorer levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), both hormones are essential for reproduction.

Researchers said, these comparatively low levels of LH and FSH are indicative of a “partial” hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, a condition in which the testes do not work appropriately due to weak signals from hypothalamus or pituitary gland, two important parts of brain involved in hormone secretion for endocrine system.

Researchers suggest that obesity alone is a key “infertility factor” in so-called healthy men, write Dr. Eric M. Pauli.

When the researchers examined the men for various reproductive hormones, they confirm that the LH and FSH levels are inversely proportional to the obesity. On the other side, increasing obesity can be associated with elevating estrogen levels.

Pauli’s team explained that, excessive body fats increase the conversion of testosterone to estrogen in a man’s blood. Such hormone alterations could signal the brain to reduce or even stop FSH and LH production.

Previous studies have linked obesity with a dampened libido and higher risk of erectile dysfunction, the researchers note. Those effects along with the hormonal alterations seen in this study, could act together to decrease an obese man’s fertility, researcher said.

This article is the property of http://www.HealthHeap.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed