Bending the truth about the benefits of exercise Your exercise freak friends and relatives are going to love this. Some medical wise men have gotten together and determined that "it's extremely welcome news…that exercise appears to be a lifestyle characteristic that women can alter to reduce their lifetime risk of breast cancer. The role of physical activity, either recreational or occupational, in reducing breast cancer risk has been studied for over a decade with generally encouraging results." Well, let's look at this weird analysis that starts with a roar and ends with a whimper. The "extremely welcome news" turns to "appears to be" and reported results that are "generally encouraging." This type of study, called a "meta analysis" is a joke. The results of a group of similar studies are pulled together, in a statistical blender so to speak, and then analyzed to see if the accumulated results are better than the individual studies. When I was doing my homework for this piece, I also looked for studies that actually went against the politically correct "exercise will save you" consensus. I found references to them so they do exist…but, funny, you can't access them, not even summaries, without paying, while all the studies "proving" that you should be out there sweating buckets are free and ripe for the picking. Coincidence? I'm not trying to discourage you. I just want to keep you attached to reality and not to think these experts have made a momentous discovery. At the end of all their digging, comparing, and scribbling, they recommend "moderate exercise." You can get this sort just by taking a walk around the block a few times a week.
Running over medical myths,
Dr. William Campbell Douglass II, MD
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