It is doubtful whether there is a more dreaded disease than cancer today. While other leading killer diseases like heart attack and stroke are potentially more lethal instantly, people somehow dread cancer more, maybe due to the progressive nature of the disease as well as the physical, emotional and financial blow it delivers to not only the patient but their families.
The dread regarding cancer being such, any biohack or lifestyle modification that promises prevention of cancer would be most welcome by all who are even basically health conscious. Even a preventive potential in high single digit or low double digit percentages have been eagerly pursued by scientists for many decades now. But a silver bullet against cancer has so far eluded researchers, as different cancers that affect different organs often have different underlying mechanisms.
But a new Swedish study by researchers at University of Gothenburg seems to have unravelled precisely such a silver bullet that promises up to 42% protection against not just one or two types, but nine different cancers affecting head and neck, oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, colon, rectum, kidney, and lungs. Published recently in the renowned British Journal of Sports Medicine, the study assumes significance as it analysed data from over 1 million men across 33 years.
This silver bullet is nothing but cardiorespiratory fitness or aerobic health. While it has been long known to be protective against heart attacks and strokes, and even against some cancers at a basic level, this is the first massive scale study that shows the immense protective power of cardiorespiratory fitness against so many different kinds of cancers.
Of course, not all these cancers have the same protective power from aerobic fitness. Individuals with excellent cardiorespiratory fitness had a most significant 42% risk reduction against lung cancer, 40% reduced risk of liver cancer, and 39% reduced risk of oesophageal cancer. Risk reduction of aerobic fitness against other cancers ranged from 21% to 5%.
So what exactly is cardiorespiratory fitness? It is a person’s ability to sustain aerobic activities like brisk walking, climbing stairs, jogging, running, cycling, swimming etc for an extended period of time. In other words, it is a measure of the health of the respiratory and circulatory systems, and more specifically how efficiently these systems can transport oxygen to the mitochondria – which are the cellular powerhouses – of the skeletal muscle cells that move the limbs.
The study also found that when it comes to aerobic activities that offer maximum protection against cancers, moderate to vigorous activities like running, cycling and swimming were most effective. While peak cardiorespiratory fitness was most beneficial, the study also found a linear correlation with any kind of aerobic activity, which should encourage anyone to even start small and progress regularly in aerobic activities. However, non-aerobic exercises like resistance or weight training were found to have only the least protective power against cancers.
Another big takeaway from this study is that it analysed cardiorespiratory fitness at the late teens or early twenties, and then tracked its impact for more than three decades. It shows the power of early interventions against cancers. Today, this fact can be utilised most effectively by opting for geno-metabolic screening systems like EPLIMO that can detect genetic and metabolic risk factors for developing various cancers, years or decades before it happens.
If such risks are detected, EPLIMO can also suggest personalised lifestyle modifications spanning diet, nutrition, supplements, exercise, sleep, yoga, meditation, breathwork, de-stressing, detoxing etc for a more comprehensive defensive setup against cancer than relying on cardiorespiratory fitness alone. The AI driven EPLIMO system is highly practical as it can detect not only risks for cancer, but risks against 250+ lifestyle diseases in one easily administered saliva based test.
Lifestyle modifications like regular and vigorous aerobic activities are easier said than done, and require a high degree of motivation. To assist in this, today there are lifestyle modification communities too like Limoverse, that encourages its members to keep exercising regularly by paying them crypto tokens as rewards into their wallets.
(To adopt these cancer-fighting and life-enhancing biohacks, visit Vieroots.com and Limoverse.io)