Preliminary Data Suggests Exercise May Protect Against Skin Cancer

Researchers at the Rutgers University in New Jersey have found that when they make mice continue on running wheels while exposing the mice to ultraviolet B light (UVB), these exercising mice took longer to develop skin tumors, and when tumors do develop, the tumors were smaller and fewer in number than mice that did not exercise.

This prompted lots of press releases about how “exercise protects against skin cancer.” (and if you want to know how I feel about this type of hype, just see my previous post on ginger and cancer!)

What can we conclude?

1. These are mice, not human, sometimes what happens in mice doesn’t translate to humans.
2. The results are interesting, and clinical studies with human will be helpful.
3. Exercising is good, in general, so I’m all for it, for general health benefits.