A new study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Oxford has found that doing even light daily activities—like walking, doing chores, or running errands—may help reduce your risk of cancer.
The research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on March 26, 2025, looked at over 85,000 adults in the United Kingdom.
The participants, with a median age of 63, wore wrist devices called accelerometers for one week.
These devices tracked how much they moved each day, how intense the activity was, and how many steps they took.
Over nearly six years of follow-up, 2,633 people in the study were diagnosed with one of 13 common cancers, including breast and colon cancer.
The researchers found that people who moved more throughout the day had a 26% lower risk of developing these cancers compared to those who were less active.
Importantly, the study showed that even light activities—like gentle walking or household chores—can make a difference.
In fact, replacing sitting time with any kind of movement, whether light or more intense, was linked to a lower risk of cancer.
One key takeaway is that you don’t need to do intense workouts to benefit. Just moving more throughout your day can help protect your health. For example, going for short walks, gardening, or cleaning your home counts as physical activity that may reduce your cancer risk.
The researchers also looked at how many steps people took each day. They found that walking more steps per day was linked to lower cancer risk—but how fast you walked didn’t matter as much.
Compared to people who took 5,000 steps a day, those who took 7,000 steps had an 11% lower cancer risk, and those who took 9,000 steps had a 16% lower risk. However, beyond 9,000 steps, the benefits seemed to level off.
These findings remained true even when researchers took into account other factors like age, weight, smoking, and overall health.
The message is clear: every step counts. You don’t need to join a gym or do intense workouts to lower your cancer risk. Just try to move more in your everyday life—walk a bit more, take the stairs, or stay active while doing chores. Small changes can make a big difference for your long-term health.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and berry that can prevent cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
Source: National Cancer Institute.
