London: Want to beat breast cancer? All you need to do is to stay fit by doing daily workouts, ladies.
A new study, published in the `European Journal of Cancer Prevention`, has claimed that women who exercise regularly are nearly 40 percent less likely to die from breast cancer even if they fall victim to the disease.
In fact, these are the findings of a group of researchers at University of North Carolina who found that women who made exercise a part of their lifestyle from their teens onwards had a much greater chance of surviving a tumour.
The study showed women with a healthy lifestyle who still develop the disease will have bolstered their chances of survival.
According to the researchers, a healthy lifestyle probably equips the immune system to fight off attempts by the cancerous cells to start dividing uncontrollably inside breast tissue.
For their study, the researchers recruited 1,508 women newly diagnosed with the disease in the late 90s and carried out detailed assessments of their lifetime exercise regimes.
They then tracked the women over a five-year period to see how many died or survived.
Their results revealed that women who engaged in regular vigorous exercise from puberty to the point where they were diagnosed, were 36 percent per cent less likely to die from their cancer and 43 percent less likely to die from any other cause, the `Daily Express` reported.
The researchers added: "This study provides support that regular physical activity, prior to breast cancer diagnosis, improves survival."
PTI
