Vigorous Exercise Can Cut Breast Cancer Risk

FRIDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Vigorous activity can reduce the risk of breast cancer by about 30 percent in normal-weight women, according to an 11-year U.S. study of 32,269 postmenopausal women.

For the study, vigorous activity was defined as heavy housework (scrubbing floors, washing windows, demanding yard work, digging, chopping wood) and strenuous sports or exercise, such as running, fast jogging, competitive tennis, aerobics, bicycling on hills, and fast dancing.

While vigorous activity reduced breast cancer risk in normal-weight women, it had no effect in women who were overweight or obese, according to study leader Michael F. Leitzmann and colleagues.

They also found that non-vigorous activity, such as light housework (vacuuming, doing laundry, painting, general gardening) and light sports or exercise (walking, hiking, light jogging, recreational tennis, bowling) offered no protection against breast cancer.

The findings were published in the journalBreast Cancer Research.

"Possible mechanisms through which physical activity may protect against breast cancer that are independent of body mass include reduced exposure to growth factors, enhanced immune function, and decreased chronic inflammation, variables that are related both to greater physical activity and to lower breast cancer risk," the study authors wrote.

"An alternative explanation for the stronger apparent effect of vigorous activity among lean over heavy women is that heavier women may misreport non-vigorous activities as vigorous activities," the researchers added.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about breast cancer risk.

SOURCE: BioMed Central, news release, Oct. 30, 2008

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When men see red, they see hot: study

AFP - Wednesday, October 29

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The popular ballad "Lady in Red" is poised to take on a whole new meaning: a study published Tuesday showed that the color red makes men see women as hotter or, more scientifically put, more attractive.

Researchers from the University of Rochester in New York conducted five psychological experiments to demonstrate that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women.

In the experiments, groups of young men looked briefly at a picture of a moderately attractive woman printed on a red background, and the same woman then on a white, grey or green background. They also looked at a woman in red clothing, and the same one in blue clothing.

The men found the lady with a red background more attractive, both physically and sexually.

Comparing the woman in a red shirt to the same woman dressed in blue, men said they were more likely to ask the lady in red on a date and to lavish more money on her.

As part of one of the experiments, as well, the researchers sought to see whether a group of women were similarly more attracted to the woman shown against a red backdrop than a background of a different color. They were not.

What the researchers call the "red-sex link" could have roots in humans' biological heritage.

For instance, among primates, females display more red on parts of their body when they are nearing ovulation, probably to attract the male of the species.

"Research has shown that male primates are indeed particularly attracted to female conspecifics exhibiting red," the study says.

To the authors of the study, University of Rochester psychology professor Andrew Elliot and post-graduate researcher Daniela Niesta, the experiments' findings confirm what "women have long suspected and claimed: that men act like animals in the sexual realm."

And, they added, the fact that men are more turned on by women in red also confirms that, although men like to think that they respond to women "in a thoughtful and sophisticated manner, it appears that at least to some degree their preferences and predilections are, in a word, primitive." [source]