U.S. researchers say there is yet another reason to exercise -- a lower risk of dying from colon cancer.
Kathleen Wolin of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis says people often wonder around the start of a new year whether exercise really will help them stay healthy.
"It's never too late to start exercising," Wolin says in a statement, "but it's also never too early to start being active."
The researchers studied more than 150,000 men and women -- looking at their levels of physical activity from 1982 to 1997, the number of colon cancer diagnoses between 1998 and 2005, and the number of colon cancer deaths during that time.
Wolin and colleagues found those who exercised consistently for at least 10 years had the lowest risk of colon cancer death.
The study is published in Cancer Epidemiology found people who were consistently active over the course of their adulthood had a lower risk of death from colon cancer than those who were sedentary.