Once again procrastinating proves the top strategy.
Nothing but up, my friends!
A research team in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy at the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has conducted a pioneering study that found an association between walking speed and cancer risk. The researchers found that individuals who walk faster have a markedly lower overall risk of developing cancer, particularly lung cancer. This association was consistent regardless of whether walking speed was self-reported or objectively measured.
As always, correlation =|= causation. Walking speed is almost certainly linked to like 15 other good health indicators. Exercise is good for you, and you should do it. But these results do not support the recommendation that fast walking will reduce your chances of lung cancer. These results say that if you already walk fast that you probably have a lower chance of lung cancer. Maybe it is the healthier lungs that allow you to walk faster? Maybe it’s a genetic component that makes you walk faster AND reduces your chances of lung cancer. Maybe they fucked up the sample and all of their slow walkers lived downwind of an asbestos plant.
Again, exercise is good for you. Exercise as much as you can. Cannot stress that enough. The health value of exercise is unquestionable and universal, and a lack of exercise is bad for you in every way. Bad science is bad for everyone, though.
i have to wonder if just breathing more protects against lung cancer somehow
Perhaps. Or maybe, people with healthier, more efficient lungs are able to walk faster without breathing heavier. In that case, breathing less might reduce the inhaled carcinogens, reducing the risk of lung cancer.
Looking at the actual research, the conclusions are carefully worded to avoid this sort of reporting.
Faster walking speed, whether self-reported or measured, is associated with a reduced risk of cancer development. This association appears to be partially mediated by lower inflammation and improved lipid profiles.
I think the results below might say that faster walkers tend to be at a healthier weight. Better lipid panels and less inflammation probably means fewer are overweight and obese.
Probably. Or maybe, people who have healthier lungs don’t need to breathe as much to efficiently exchange oxygen for CO2. So maybe breathing less protects against lung cancer by inhaling fewer carcinogens.
There are simply too many confounding variables to control for all of them. Research like this is important, and it’s not the researchers’ fault. Notice how the conclusions are carefully worded to specifically avoid exactly this sort of news article.
This is why I’m always walking fast while smoking. Helth
Pro tip, put meth in your cigarettes and you won’t even need to think about walking fast, you’ll be too busy thinking of copper piping.
Is it because people who walk faster tend to have less risk for developing lung cancer, or the other way around? Correlation does not mean causation, and from the article I find that walking speed is a marker for the risk of lung cancer, not “you should walk faster to prevent lung cancer”.
I could see a mechanism for this. Wife and I just had COVID, and I seem to have scored the long-form version. My lungs are so fucked up that walking to the bathroom and back gets my heart racing.
She scored a banging deal and a metal shed we need, went to take it apart yesterday. Pretty hard work disassembling the thing for an hour and a half in the heat.
Today my lungs are better than they’re been in weeks and I suspect that came from pumping air in and out.
Gee who could have possibly known that people who feel tired all the time are more likely to get sick!
