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Gardening or walking 'can cut men's risk of prostate cancer in half'

Those who exercise daily found to have 51 per cent reduced risk of developing the disease

Thursday 05 December 2019 11:40

Men who exercise regularly could cut their risk of prostate cancer in half, a new study has found.

According to experts, daily activity – which can include gardening or walking – has a “far larger” protective effect than previously thought.

For the study, a team funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and Cancer Research UK used a robust method of measuring physical activity among 79,148 men with prostate cancer and 61,106 without.

The scientists looked at variations in each person's DNA sequence which relates to how active they are, rather than just relying on what the participants said about their lifestyles.

The study, which mainly involved men over the age of 50, found those that were the most active had a 51 per cent reduced risk of prostate cancer compared with those who were the least active.

16 male celebrities who have spoken about mental health

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1/1616 male celebrities who have spoken about mental health

Stormzy told Channel 4 in 2017 that by opening up about his depression he hoped to help others. "I think for them to see I went through it would help," the BRIT-award-winning musician said. "For a long time I used to think that soldiers don’t go through that. You know? Like, strong people in life, the bravest, the most courageous people, they don’t go through that, they just get on with it...and that’s not the case."

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Twilight star Robert Pattinson told The Telegraph he struggled with depression for a period of time. “'I had a bit of a struggle at first because my life really contracted and I couldn't do a lot of the stuff I used to be able to do." He advised aspiring Hollywood actors to "take care" of your mental health. "If you get as famous as quickly as I did, your personal growth stops suddenly.”

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Former American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, experienced periods of depression and suicidal feelings. He told Today in 2018: "After years and years and years of just shoving every negative, bad feeling down to the point where I mean, I just didn't even feel it anymore...and for me, that sent me down a spiral staircase real quick and like I said, I found myself in a spot where I didn't want to be alive anymore."

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Zayn Malik told The Sunday Times Style magazine about suffering with an eating disorder and anxiety. "We’re all human. People are often afraid to admit difficulties, but I don’t believe that there should be a struggle with anything that’s the truth," said the former One Direction singer. "If you were a guy, you used to have to be really masculine, but now expressing emotion is accepted and respected.’

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Singer Will Young has spoken about his experience with suicidal thoughts. "There's a part of my brain that is telling me that you're about to die, [so] you either shut down, freeze or you run. The only thing I can do is go to bed." He said that without the help of his therapist he probably would have been successful in his suicide attempts. “I have so many mental thoughts in my head: ‘You’re never going to sing again’. ‘That was a s*** dance move.’ ‘They’re hating you.’”

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After his father took his own life in 2008, rapper Professor Green started speaking openly about his mental health problems and the pressure on men to be strong. “We have to figure out a way that men can talk to one another and figure out how to make themselves feel better,” he told theiNews. Although he is pleased to "start conversations" Green warns how becoming a mental health spokesperson can be high pressure. “It’s difficult because sometimes you’re having a great day, then someone comes up and tells you something absolutely horrific; I’m not a psychologist and it’s really hard."

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American actor, comedian, writer and musician Donald Glover, who performs under the name Childish Gambino told Vice in 2013 he'd been through periods of depression following the end of his tour. "I was just super depressed. I mean, I tried to kill myself. I was really fucked up after that [tour], because I had this girl that I thought I was going to marry and we broke up. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t living up to my standard, I was living up to other people’s standards, and I just said ‘I don’t see the point'.”

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Shawn Mendes told People magazine that talking about his mental health problems was the "scariest" thing he's ever done. "I still struggle with it but just remember every day that everyone deals with some level of anxiety or pressure; we're all in it together." He told The Sun in 2018: "All pain is temporary, and the thing is with anxiety, and why it's such a hard thing for people who don't have it to understand."

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Comedian and actor Jim Carrey told iNews that he had struggled with depression throughout his life. “At this point, I don’t have depression. I had that for years, but now, when the rain comes, it rains, but it doesn’t stay. It doesn’t stay long enough to immerse me and drown me anymore.”

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Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz has spoken openly about his bipolar disorder diagnosis and other mental health problems. He said that it took him to reach breaking point before asking for help. "My best piece of advice, more than anything, is that there's other people out there that feel [suicidal], or are feeling that right at that time," he said. "Maybe your favorite actor, or a guy in a band, or whoever, there are people who feel that exact same thing and have made it through that. I would say more than anything, you're not alone in it."

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"I struggled with chronic depression," Mad Men star Jon Hamm told The Guardian in 2010. "I did do therapy and antidepressants for a brief period, which helped me." Hamm said medication helped change his "brain chemistry" enough so he could get out of bed. "I don't want to sleep until four in the afternoon. I want to get up and go do my shit and go to work," he says.

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Catastrophe actor and comedian Rob Delaney, who lost his son Henry to brain cancer in January 2018, said he has long struggled with depression and encouraged others in the same position to seek help. "Asking for help is strong because it leads directly to staying alive," he says. "Not asking for help is as fear-based a decision as a human being can make and can lead you swiftly in a bad direction. It's not exaggerating to say that path can end in death."

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Dwayne Johnson has spoken on numerous occasions about mental health. On ITV's Lorraine Kelly he said: "Depression doesn't discriminate, and I thought that was an important part of the narrative if I was going to share a little bit of my story of the past. Regardless of who you are or what you do for a living or where you come from, it doesn't discriminate, we all kind of go through it. If I could share a little bit of it and if I could help somebody, I'm happy to do it."

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"I have anxiety, I've always had anxiety," the Deadpool actor told the New York Times in 2018. "Both in the lighthearted ‘I’m anxious about this’ kind of thing, and I’ve been to the depths of the darker end of the spectrum, which is not fun.” Reynolds said he went through a period of partying to try and make himself "vanish" in some way and would frequently suffer with anxiety-related insomnia.

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Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen told Esquire magazine in 2018 that although he wouldn't describe himself as being mentally unwell, he has "come close enough" and takes medication to cope. "I’m on a variety of medications that keep me on an even keel; otherwise I can swing rather dramatically and the wheels can come off a little bit.”

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Prince Harry has been a vocal supporter of mental health campaigns like 'Time To Talk'. He also has spoken openly about his own problems following the death of his mother, Princess Diana. He told The Telegraph: “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle." Harry said there was "huge merit" in talking about your issues and keeping quiet only makes things worse.

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The most active men were expected to meet NHS guidelines which recommends around two and a half hours' exercise weekly, or 20 minutes a day.

Dr Sarah Lewis, senior lecturer in genetic epidemiology at Bristol Medical School and lead author of the research, said: “Our findings suggest that the more active you are, the better.

"We would recommend that men are as physically active as they can be.

“Our evidence suggests being active will be beneficial in terms of their prostate cancer risk. But it doesn't have to be vigorous activity or playing team sports, you just have to move about.

"Being active could be things such as gardening, walking or other activities that you can build into your daily routine."

Lewis said that although the study looked at particular genes relating to exercise, the effect of the genes themselves on prostate cancer risk was small.

This suggests that it is being physically active that is leading to the huge benefits seen in reducing the risk of prostate cancer.

"This study is the largest-ever of its kind which uses a relatively new method that complements current observational research to discover what causes prostate cancer,” she added.

“It suggests that there could be a larger effect of physical activity on prostate cancer than previously thought, so will hopefully encourage men to be more active.”

In the UK, around one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.

The WCRF said this risk could drop to one in 12 for men who are the most physically active.

Dr Anna Diaz Font, head of research funding at the WCRF, called the results of the study "striking".

“Up till now, there has only been limited evidence of an effect of physical activity on prostate cancer,” Font said.

"This new study looked at the effect of 22 risk factors on prostate cancer, but the results for physical activity were the most striking.

“This will pave the way for even more research, where similar methods could be applied to other lifestyle factors, to help identify ways men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer.”

According to the NHS, prostate cancer mostly affects men over the age of 50 and risk factors include having a family history of the disease.

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Symptoms of the disease include an increased need to urinate, straining while you urinate and a feeling that your bladder has not fully emptied.

The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

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