Young Children With Sleep Apnea May Face Learning Difficulties: Study

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Sleep apnea in young children may affect youngsters’ attention, memory and language development, a new study suggests.

The researchers added that as sleep apnea worsens, the risk of these problems also may increase.

“Although evidence suggesting the presence of cognitive deficits in children with sleep apnea has been around for quite some time, the relatively small groups studied made it difficult to demonstrate a strong relationship between increasing cognitive issues and increasing sleep apnea severity,” said Dr. Leila Gozal, from the University of Chicago.

Sleep apnea causes people to experience repetitive pauses in breathing while they sleep. This causes oxygen levels to drop temporarily, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

While the new study with children did not prove cause-and-effect, previous research has shown that sleep apnea in adults is associated with trouble concentrating, memory issues, poor decision-making, depression and stress.

The new study involved almost 1,400 public schoolchildren with sleep apnea. The kids ranged in age from 5 to 7. Some, but not all, of the children snored.

The researchers divided the children into four groups based on the severity of their sleep apnea.

The kids participated in an overnight sleep study and answered detailed questions about their sleep. The children also completed tests to measure certain aspects of brain function, including language and decision-making skills.

After comparing the results in each group, the researchers found that even mild problems such as snoring had a negative effect on children’s thinking abilities, the researchers reported in a news release from the American Thoracic Society.

Gozal said the findings suggest that the development of simple brain function tests that could be used along with current clinical evaluation of children with habitual snoring might help guide the treatment of children with sleep apnea.

The findings were to be presented Monday at the American Thoracic Society’s annual conference, in San Francisco. Findings presented at meetings are typically seen as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides more information on sleep apnea.

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Severe, Untreated Sleep Apnea Linked to Aggressive Melanoma

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Sleep is key to immune function and health, and a new study finds that may be especially true for patients battling melanoma.

The study found that severe, untreated cases of sleep apnea — interruptions in nighttime breathing — are linked with more aggressive melanomas.

“This is the first large, prospective multicenter study that was specifically constructed to look at the relationship between sleep apnea and a specific cancer,” explained study author Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Garcia, from La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia, Spain.

“While more research is needed, this study shows that patients in the study had markers of poor prognosis for their melanoma. It also highlights the importance of diagnosing and treating sleep apnea,” Martinez-Garcia said in a news release from the in a news release from the American Thoracic Society (ATS).

One expert said the finding isn’t overly surprising. “Sleep deprivation can lead to immunologic dysfunction,” noted Dr. Jordan Josephson, a sleep apnea specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

The findings were slated for presentation on Monday at the annual meeting of the ATS, in San Francisco.

The study involved 412 patients, averaging 55 years of age, all of whom had confirmed cases of cutaneous malignant melanoma. All of the patients were also studied to gauge how well they slept.

While it’s impossible from this study to say that sleep apnea causes melanoma to become more aggressive, the researchers found that apnea was more common and severe for patients diagnosed with the most aggressive cancers.

This was true even when they factored out other risk factors for melanoma such as age, gender, weight, skin type and sun exposure, the research team noted.

Experts who reviewed the findings said the results were preliminary but intriguing.

“One person dies every hour in this country from malignant melanoma,” said Dr. Doris Day, a skin cancer expert and spokeswoman for The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery.

Day believes that better sleep might help the body fight melanoma, since “many immunologic and restorative events take place during this time.”

Another expert in sleep health agreed.

“Although the mechanism of this effect is unclear, these results add to the growing list of adverse effects of obstructive sleep apnea and point out the central role that sleep plays in health,” said Dr. Michael Weinstein, who directs the sleep disorders center at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, NY.

Martinez-Garcia offered some advice to patients.

“People who snore, frequently wake up at night or have daytime sleepiness should see a sleep specialist, especially if they have other risk factors for cancer or already have cancer,” he said.

“Physicians — especially dermatologists, cancer surgeons and medical oncologists — should ask their patients about potential sleep apnea symptoms, and refer them for a sleep study if they have these symptoms,” Martinez-Garcia added.

Experts note that findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Lung Association provides more information on sleep apnea.

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Sleep Apnea May Raise Risks for Angioplasty Patients

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Scientists say they now have more evidence that sleep apnea might worsen heart disease.

Sleep apnea leads to interrupted breathing during sleep. In their study, the researchers found that patients with the condition who had a form of the heart procedure called angioplasty were much more likely to suffer heart attacks or strokes after their procedure.

The big difference held up even when the researchers adjusted their findings so they wouldn’t be thrown off by factors like obesity and high blood pressure, which are common in these patients.

While the study did not prove sleep apnea caused heart disease to worsen, the authors think the first one probably exacerbates the second one.

“For cardiologists inserting stents for coronary artery disease, it is important to screen the patients for obstructive sleep apnea,” said study author Dr. Lee Chi-Hang.

“And patients who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea should know about the strong relationship between sleep apnea and heart disease,” added Chi-Hang, a senior consultant in the department of cardiology at the National University of Singapore Heart Center.

For the study, the researchers tracked just over 1,300 patients from Brazil, China, India, Myanmar and Singapore who had undergone angioplasty with stents. In these procedures, surgeons thread catheters through vessels and clear blockages by implanting stents designed to keep arteries open.

Almost 60 percent of the patients were overweight or obese, and 45 percent were diagnosed with sleep apnea.

The researchers followed the patients for a median of two years. Of the patients, 141 (11 percent) suffered a stroke, heart attack or needed another procedure. Out of those patients, 24 died.

But, these problems only occurred in 8 percent of patients without sleep apnea.

Chi-Hang said sleep apnea appears to be the culprit, especially in light of the “ample data” in studies over the past two decades that has linked it to heart disease.

Sleep apnea appears to contribute to cardiac illness by robbing people of oxygen, Chi-Hang said, a process that can lead to surges in blood pressure and inflammation. These, in turn, can harm the lining of blood vessels, thicken blood and make the heart struggle, he explained.

Chi-Hang said doctors should screen angioplasty-with-stent patients for sleep apnea. Patients with the sleep condition who have daytime sleepiness should get treatment via CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) breathing machines, he said.

However, only 1 percent of those diagnosed with sleep apnea were being treated via CPAP by the end of the study, as many patients won’t accept treatment with the breathing machines, he added.

Moving forward, the National University Heart Center Singapore is planning a study to provide insight into whether certain heart patients should undergo testing for sleep apnea, Chi-Hang said.

Dr. Sanja Jelic, an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, said “the mystery remains whether treatment of sleep apnea reduces cardiovascular risk.”

The research has been limited because only about 30 percent to 40 percent of patients who try the breathing devices keep using them after a year, she explained.

Jelic said it may be possible to better understand the connection with a controlled clinical trial. But, it would be dangerous to assign some sleep apnea patients with daytime sleepiness to not undergo treatment just to compare them to those who do get treatment.

Meanwhile, Jelic said, “every patient with cardiovascular disease should be screened for sleep apnea by answering questions during the doctor’s visit.”

The findings were to be presented Monday at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting in San Francisco. Studies released at conferences should be considered preliminary until they are published in medical journals after peer review.

More information

For more about sleep apnea and cardiac disease, try the American Heart Association.

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Children’s Brains ‘Light Up’ at Sound of Mom’s Voice

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A mother’s voice may do far more than soothe her child, new research suggests.

When moms spoke, several areas of their children’s brains were activated, the researchers reported. These included regions involved in emotion and reward processing, social functions, facial recognition and the detection of what is personally relevant.

But this heightened neurological reaction was reserved for mom alone, and not for other women, the investigators found.

“Many of our social, language and emotional processes are learned by listening to our mom’s voice,” study author Daniel Abrams, an instructor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said in a university news release.

“But surprisingly little is known about how the brain organizes itself around this very important sound source. We didn’t realize that a mother’s voice would have such quick access to so many different brain systems,” Abrams added.

Previous studies have shown that children favor their mother’s voice, but the underlying mechanism for this preference was unclear.

“Nobody had really looked at the brain circuits that might be engaged,” explained senior study author Vinod Menon, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford. “We wanted to know: Is it just auditory and voice-selective areas that respond differently, or is it more broad in terms of engagement, emotional reactivity and detection of salient stimuli?”

To answer these questions, researchers analyzed the brain scans of children listening to their mother’s voices.

The study involved 24 children between the ages of 7 and 12 who were being raised by their biological mothers. All of the children had an IQ of at least 80 and none of the kids had developmental disorders, the researchers noted.

The children’s parents answered questions about their child’s communication skills, including their ability to interact and relate to others.

The children’s mothers were recorded as they said three nonsense words.

“In this age range, where most children have good language skills, we didn’t want to use words that had meaning because that would have engaged a whole different set of circuitry in the brain,” Menon said.

Two mothers whose children were not involved in the study, and who didn’t know any of the participants, were also recorded saying three nonsense words.

As the children listened to clips of the recordings of both their mother and the unfamiliar women, their brains were scanned using MRIs.

The researchers found the children could identify their own mother with 97 percent accuracy, even after listening to recordings less than 1 second long.

Several of the children’s brain regions were more engaged by the sound of their mother’s voice than by the stranger, the study revealed.

“The extent of the regions that were engaged was really quite surprising,” Menon said.

The parts of the brain affected include areas involved in:

• Hearing,
• Emotions,
• Reward processing,
• Processing information about the self,
• Perceiving and processing the sight of faces.

“We know that hearing mother’s voice can be an important source of emotional comfort to children,” Abrams said. “Here, we’re showing the biological circuitry underlying that.”

Children with stronger connections between these brain regions when they heard their mother’s voice also had the strongest social communication abilities, the researchers said.

“This is an important new template for investigating social communication deficits in children with disorders such as autism,” Menon said.

“Voice is one of the most important social communication cues,” Menon said. “It’s exciting to see that the echo of one’s mother’s voice lives on in so many brain systems.”

The study was published May 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

Harvard University provides more information on children’s developing brains.

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Wearable Monitor Helps Spot ‘Masked’ High Blood Pressure

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Constant blood pressure monitoring could help doctors spot black people with “masked,” or undetected, high blood pressure, a new study suggests.

“Masked” high blood pressure can be difficult to diagnose. People with masked high blood pressure may have normal blood pressure in their doctor’s office, but then intermittently develop high blood pressure at other times.

Wearing a blood pressure-monitoring device that measures blood pressure around-the-clock could help identify undetected high blood pressure, the researchers said.

In ambulatory monitoring, a small blood pressure cuff is worn around the arm. This cuff is connected to a device worn on the hip. Blood pressure readings are provided during routine normal activities, including sleep, over the course of 24 hours, the study authors explained.

Researchers used the device to screen 317 black people at high risk for masked high blood pressure for a day at the start of the study. The researchers noted that none of the participants had diagnosed high blood pressure or were taking blood pressure medication when the study began.

After being followed for an average of about eight years, the study revealed that 187 of the participants developed high blood pressure.

Overall, masked hypertension was linked with a much higher risk of eventually being diagnosed with high blood pressure in the doctor’s office (clinic hypertension), the study said.

The findings were published May 16 in the journal Hypertension, a publication of the American Heart Association.

“Our study found that African Americans with any masked hypertension had twice the risk of developing clinic hypertension when compared to those who had both normal clinic and normal out-of-office blood pressure,” study author Dr. Marwah Abdalla, a cardiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, said in heart association news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on high blood pressure.

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Half of Heart Attacks Might Be ‘Silent’

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — As many as half of all heart attacks may be “silent” — without the typical crushing chest pain, shortness of breath and cold sweats, new study findings suggest.

Among nearly 9,500 Americans included in the study, 45 percent of all heart attacks were silent, investigators found. And, the study authors said, these silent heart attacks triple the odds of dying from heart disease.

“Silent heart attacks are almost as common as heart attacks with symptoms and just as bad,” said senior study author Dr. Elsayed Soliman. He is director of the epidemiological cardiology research center at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Heart attacks reduce or stop blood flow to the heart muscle. Because silent heart attacks often go undiagnosed, people don’t get the medical care needed to prevent another heart attack, or even death, the study authors explained.

Symptoms of a silent heart attack are so mild they’re barely noticed, if at all, Soliman said. Most are discovered accidentally, with damage showing up on an electrocardiogram (EKG) given during a regular exam or before surgery, he said.

According to Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women’s heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, “When heart attacks are silent, people are less likely to get treatment. And that’s been a problem with women. Symptoms are sometimes more subtle than the crushing chest pain.”

Although silent heart attacks are more common among men, they are deadlier for women and perhaps black people, the study findings indicated.

Steinbaum, who was not involved with the study, said that people should not dismiss symptoms such as fatigue, nausea or shortness of breath that occur when exercising or running errands but that go away when resting.

“These subtle symptoms might be your heart and should not be ignored — you should seek out a doctor’s care,” she said.

“I tell all women that you need to take a close look at your risk factors for heart disease,” Steinbaum added.

The researchers said there were too few black patients in the study to know for certain if they fared worse than whites, although it appears that way.

A patient who has had a silent heart attack must be treated aggressively, Soliman said. Treatment includes controlling high blood pressure and cholesterol, and possibly modifying behavior.

Lifestyle changes include eating healthier, exercising, losing weight and stopping smoking. It’s the same prescription for heart attacks with and without symptoms, Soliman said.

Patients who have a little chest pain plus risk factors for heart attacks — such as high blood pressure, obesity or diabetes — should have an EKG “not only to see if they have had a heart attack, but also for prevention of outcomes that can happen later,” he advised.

Findings of a prior heart attack should not be taken lightly, Soliman added.

For the study, Soliman and his colleagues collected data on middle-aged men and women who took part in a study assessing the causes and outcomes of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). It was conducted in four U.S. communities.

Over roughly nine years of follow-up, 317 participants had silent heart attacks and 386 had heart attacks with classic symptoms. Deaths were tracked for more than 20 years.

The researchers accounted for factors such as smoking, weight, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. They also took into account income and education, which could affect access to care.

The investigators found that risk of death from all causes increased 34 percent after a silent heart attack.

Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of clinical cardiology at National Jewish Health in Denver, said, “I don’t think that people really understood the incidence of silent heart attack.” Freeman is also a spokesman for the American College of Cardiology.

“In a country where the diet and exercise patterns are not ideal, there may be a lot of folks we may never come in contact with who may have this problem,” he said.

Freeman suggested that doctors need to put more effort into prevention. “Doctors spend very little time talking to patients about diet and exercise,” he said. “Every doctor visit should have some component of prevention.”

The report was published online May 16 in the journal Circulation.

More information

For more on heart attack, visit the American Heart Association.

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Watch Amy Schumer’s On-Point Response to Body Shaming Salespeople

Photo: Getty Images

Shopping can be stressful. If you’ve ever been snubbed by a rude salesperson, or struggled to find clothes that actually fit, you’ll relate to Amy Schumer‘s latest viral sketch (below), which aired Thursday on her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. In the hilarious clip, called “Size 12,” Schumer has a seemingly simple request: She would like a black shirt in a larger size. But the scenario quickly escalates into absurdity when the saleswoman has trouble comprehending the question. 

Then, in a perky-but-condescending voice, the associate suggests Schumer check under the table. The only shirt down there, however, is even smaller—it’s barely big enough to fit a doll. In response to Schumer’s confusion, the saleswoman warns her to keep her voice down: “You’re scaring the thinner customers.”

RELATED: Amy Schumer Gets Emotional Talking About Body Image, Empowerment on TODAY

After Schumer clarifyies that she’s looking for just a regular size 12—not a UK 12 or a Japanese 12 (which the saleswoman explains is like an American toddler size 3)—Schumer is led to a special section of the store for her “situation.” It turns out to be a grassy field where a cow named Daisy is shopping for a dress for her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah and Lena Dunham has been patiently waiting for help finding a turtleneck for the last three months. There the saleswoman presents Schumer with a plastic tarp that she says would be “perfect for covering your pool, or your … problem areas.”

Over the top (of course) but so on point, Schumer’s sketch is a perfect comeback to the body shaming that’s all too common in clothing stores and everywhere. Check out the clip here:

Inside Amy Schumer

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4 Tasty (and Healthy) Ways to Enjoy Rhubarb That Aren’t Pie

Photo: Getty Images

If you think rhubarb is just something tart to pair with strawberries in pie, have we got good news for you: This lovely spring vegetable (yes, it’s a veggie!)—so abundant at farmers markets right now—does much more.

The rosy stalks are loaded with vitamin K, which is considered protective for brain health and essential for blood clotting. The stalks are also a good source of vitamin C and important minerals like calcium and potassium.

To buy the best rhubarb, choose the really red stalks. The green ones are good too, but the red ones have more vitamin A—which is key for vision and a healthy immune system—and are somewhat sweeter. But beware: Even sweeter rhubarb is still super-tart (though that’s what we love about it).

RELATED: 14 Fast and Fresh Farmers Market Recipes

Also look for stalks that are straight, bright, and crisp, with no soft spots. If the leaves are attached, cut them off and discard right away. (More must-know info on the leaves below.)

Store the stalks in the fridge, in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer. When you’re ready to use them, wash them and chop off the tough bottom pieces. If the skin is very tough, you can peel it, but you will lose a lot of the color this way. Use a sharp paring knife to loosen the skin at the top and pull it down and off in strips.

Finally, to enjoy that rhubarb, here are a few of our favorite recipes: You can use it in a vinaigrette drizzled over spring beets. Or stew it with strawberries and chia seeds for a delicious strawberry-ginger chia jam, turn it into a sweet and sour barbecue sauce for rhubarb-glazed shrimp, or add it to lentils for a rhubarb-lentil soup with crème fraiche.

Now remember those leaves I said to toss? They are actually toxic to eat (though it’s safe to compost them). Check out this video to learn more about rhubarb leaves, plus two other surprising foods that can actually kill you. Eek.

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Hate Push-Ups? You’ll Want to Try THIS Variation

Photo: Ryan Kelly / Daily Burn 365

Holding a plank is tough, but doing push-ups on your toes? It can seem near impossible if you’ve been on a fitness hiatus. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to modify the movement to build strength. Case in point: This fun and effective variation from Gregg Cook, trainer for Daily Burn 365.

If child’s pose and push-ups had a baby, it’d look something like this. The half-kneeling split push-up (now ain’t that a mouthful!) will work your chest, shoulders and triceps, says Cook. Why do this move instead of lifting weights to pump your upper body? This modified push-up “can help to increase the strength of the muscles involved in pushing,” Cook says, noting that many gym-goers can’t perform a full range of motion for a regular push-up. (Looking at you, people who only lower themselves a few inches!) If that sounds familiar, you could be seriously cheating yourself during workouts. 

RELATED: Can’t Do a Push-Up? Here’s Where to Start

With this move, everything changes. Since you’re on your knees, you’ll decrease the amount of bodyweight you’re pushing off the floor. “It lessens the load compared to a full push-up,” says Cook, which can help you finally lower all the way down to the floor and successfully push back up. It’s that range of motion that is integral for increasing your strength, he says.

RELATED: THIS Is How to Do Perfect Push-Ups (Even on Your Knees)

And don’t forget about the quasi-child’s pose you do once you’ve pushed off the floor. That offers a bit of a break for your muscles to recover, says Cook. Plus, sitting your hips backwards with your arms extended over your head will give you a nice stretch in your inner thighs and your back (specifically, your lats).

GIF: Ryan Kelly / Daily Burn 365

Try It Now: Half-Kneeling Split Push-Ups

How to: Using a mat underneath you, start on your hands ands knees, with your arms straight and your wrists directly under your shoulders (a). Extend your right leg out to the side. Your hips should be over your knees (b). Next, lower your upper body down towards the floor as you inhale. Slowly bend your elbows and lower your chest to the floor, while maintaining a straight line from the crown of your head to your knees (c). Next, exhale and press upward by engaging your chest and core. Think of pushing the floor away while keeping your elbows close to your sides. (Don’t let them flare away from your body too much.) (d) Now, sit your hips backwards into child’s pose, keeping your right leg out to the side. You should be as far back as you can, while keeping your arms fully extend to get a nice back stretch. Raise yourself up to the starting position (e).

This article originally appeared on DailyBurn.com. Want full, no-equipment workouts from Cook? Catch him on DailyBurn.com/365, free for 30 days.

More from Daily Burn: 

5 Crazy-Effective Crunch Variations

3 Quick HIIT Workouts for Beginners

11 No-Bake Energy Bites Recipes

Life by Daily Burn is dedicated to helping you live a healthier, happier and more active lifestyle. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or de-stress, a better you is well within reach. Get more health and fitness tips at Life by Daily Burn.

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Exercise Can Lower Risk of Some Cancers By 20%

Photo: Getty Images

You know the virtues of regular physical activity: it can lower your risk of becoming overweight and can keep diseases like heart problems and diabetes at bay. But can it help reduce the risk of cancer, too? A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine sheds new light on that question.

Previous studies have found that people who are more active tend to have lower rates of colon, breast and endometrial cancer. Exercise might lower colon tumors by speeding the transit of waste through the intestines, leaving little time for any potential cancer-causing agents to harm intestinal tissues. And physical activity can lower estrogen levels, which are known to contribute to breast and endometrial tumors. Still, there was plenty scientists didn’t fully understand about the mechanism, if there is one, by which exercise cuts down on cancer risk.

In an effort to get a more complete picture of how exercise and cancer interact, a team led by Steven Moore, a cancer epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, took on the ambitious task of pooling data from 1. 4 million people who reported on their physical activity levels over a period of 11 years. Moore matched these peoples’ exercise records with whether they developed 26 different types of cancer.

RELATED: Here’s the Amount of Exercise That Lowers Breast Cancer Risk

The data came from 12 different studies that looked at a wide range of the U.S. and European populations. Overall, people who exercising more saw a 7% lower risk of developing any type of cancer than people who exercised less. But the reduced risk was especially striking for 13 types of cancers. People who were more active had on average a 20% lower risk of cancers of the esophagus, lung, kidney, stomach, endometrium and others compared with people who were less active. The reduction was slightly lower for colon, bladder, and breast cancers.

“Everybody knows physical activity reduces heart disease risk,” says Moore. “The takeaway here is that physical activity might reduce the risk of cancers as well. Cancer is a very feared disease, but if people understand that physical activity can influence their risk for cancer, then that might provide yet one more motivating factor to become active.”

RELATED: What If Your Immune System Could Be Taught to Kill Cancer?

Moore says that the relationship between physical activity and power cancer risk remained strong even after adjusting for other potential factors that could account for the reduction, including things like body mass index (BMI), diet and whether or not they smoked. While the reason for exercise’s benefit in lowering risk of these cancers isn’t clear, it’s possible that physical activity can shift insulin and inflammation to more beneficial levels that don’t promote tumor formation.

Two types of cancers, melanoma and prostate cancer, were higher among those who were more active. The skin cancer risk could be because people who exercise more may spend more time outdoors. The prostate cancer connection may be more complicated. Men who are more active may also pay more attention to their health overall, and therefore get screened more regularly for prostate cancer. (Many prostate cancers are not aggressive and do not require treatment.)

MORE: A Major Shift in Breast Cancer Understanding

Moore adds the caveat that while the data are striking, and the sheer number of people involved gives the results some validity, the association still needs to be confirmed with more studies. For one, the people self-reported on their physical activity, and while the researchers asked them to include only moderate to vigorous exercise, there could still be some bias in how the people recorded their exercise levels. And while they accounted for major factors that could influence cancer outcomes, they might not have included all potential confounders. Even adjusting for BMI, for example, was tricky, since exercise can affect BMI since it affects weight, and people who are heavier tend to be less active.

RELATED: What Teen Girls Should Eat to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk

Still, he says, the study is the most comprehensive look so far at how physical activity can influence cancer risk, and offers another potential way for people to lower their risk of the disease.

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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