How intense exercise starves cancer and stops the spread

There’s almost no aspect of our health that physical activity won’t improve.

It’s a given at this point that exercise is crucial for a healthy heart. It also helps prevent liver disease.

Regular physical activity slows brain aging and improves appetite control.

Exercise is also intimately related to cancer prevention. One study showed that moderately intense exercise can reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer.

Recently, we’ve gotten dramatic proof that upping your exercise game and sweating a little more can save your life…

High-intensity exercise robs cancer cells of glucose

A new study has found that aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of metastatic cancer by 72 percent.

Metastatic cancer is cancer that spreads from its original site to other parts of the body.

Two researchers from Tel Aviv University, Prof. Carmit Levy and Dr. Yftach Gepner, have built upon what is already known regarding exercise and cancer, to explain why high-intensity exercise prevents cancer from metastasizing.

They note that former studies have shown how exercise reduces the risk of many cancers by as much as 35 percent. 

But high-intensity exercise keeps it from spreading from one organ to another.

“In this study we added new insight, showing that high-intensity aerobic exercise, which derives its energy from sugar, can reduce the risk of metastatic cancer by as much as 72 percent.”

Apparently, high-intensity aerobic exercise causes internal organs to need and consume more glucose, which means that less glucose is available to give energy to tumors. Thus, tumors don’t have the energy to metastasize.

Keep exercising for ‘permanent protection,’ says the expert

You may have read about sugar’s cancer-fueling secret before. It’s known as the Warburg effect, named for the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist and biochemist, Otto Warburg, who first hypothesized that cancer cells prefer sugars for energy.

Cutting down on sugar isn’t always so easy, so Professor Levy presents a convincing argument for including high-intensity exercise as a regular part of your regular fitness routine.

“We assume that this [increased glucose intake] happens because the organs must compete for sugar resources with the muscles, known to burn large quantities of glucose during physical exercise.

“Consequently, if cancer develops, the fierce competition over glucose reduces the availability of energy that is critical to metastasis. Moreover, when a person exercises regularly, this condition becomes permanent: the tissues of internal organs change and become similar to muscle tissue.”

In other words, enough glucose-burning exercise will make your organs burn glucose just like muscles do, and help protect them from invading cancer cells that need that glucose to survive.

This is astounding! Exercise can actually change the tissues of your body in such a way to provide cancer protection.

How to get into high-intensity exercise

It’s simple: get some high-intensity exercise into your life!

If you’re like me, that sounds about as difficult as taking up mountain climbing. But it doesn’t have to be.

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, allows you to alternate between short bursts of intense exercise and low-intensity recovery periods.

Here, Dr. Mark Wiley explains how to create an HIIT workout for yourself using no special equipment (or an exercise bike if you’d like).

And here, Dr. Adria Schmedthorst explains how combining HIIT with swimming can not only protect you from cancer, it can help you drop some weight and feel fitter.

If you’ve tried to get into the exercise routine in the past and hit the proverbial wall, consider a safe and natural performance and endurance enhancer like the amino acid dimethylglycine, or DMG for short. It’s safe and actually supports heart health, something that other performance enhancers can’t say.

Remember, if you’re not in the habit of exercising, take baby steps — but be consistent and you’ll be there before you know it.

Sources:

Aerobic Activity Can Reduce the Risk of Metastatic Cancer by 72 percent — Neuroscience News

An Exercise-Induced Metabolic Shield in Distant Organs Blocks Cancer Progression and Metastatic Dissemination — Cancer Research