# Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study



## Northerner (Apr 20, 2017)

Want to live longer? Reduce your risk of cancer? And heart disease? Then cycle to work, say scientists.

The biggest study into the issue linked using two wheels with a halving of the risk of cancer and heart disease.

The five-year study of 250,000 UK commuters also showed walking had some benefits over sitting on public transport or taking the car.

The team in Glasgow said cycling took no willpower once it became part of the work routine - unlike going to the gym.

The five-year study compared people who had an "active" commute with those who were mostly stationary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39641122


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## Greyhound Gal (Apr 20, 2017)

Probably also depends where you live and the level of pollution though. Personally, I have no desire to cycle through smog with exhaust fumes pumping out into my face.


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## mikeyB (Apr 20, 2017)

As they say in the report, you can't directly determine a cause and effect from this study, one of the reasons being it just isn't big enough. The other thing is that cyclists have self selected for a healthy lifestyle, and though they say they factored this into the the results, we are not told what the factor was. And whether any of those factors were present or absent in any control group. If the control group was simply national statistics, then those statistics also include the cyclists.

I don't doubt it is healthier to cycle to work (with a face mask), but I doubt that it is such a big factor in reducing cancer. And also remember, that folk who decide to cycle to work are fitter generally to start with.


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## KateR (Apr 20, 2017)

That's good. My son Tom cycles a 10 mile round trip to work every day, so he will be OK.


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## Robin (Apr 20, 2017)

Well, a friend of mine kept very fit cycling to work, until he was knocked off his bike by a lorry and broke his leg in several places....


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## Northerner (Apr 20, 2017)

I wouldn't get very far cycling to work - I work from home and I don't have a bike!


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## HOBIE (Apr 20, 2017)

Its has to be good for you !  I had my BMR monitored a couple of weeks ago & got very good results. Heart & breathing !


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## mikeyB (Apr 20, 2017)

You could get yourself a desk bike, Northerner. There's a range of them on Amazon, £20 to £30. Exercise all day 

And you could wear Lycra - there's nobody there to laugh, though you'd be ribbed mercilessly on here whether you did or not


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Apr 20, 2017)

I don't fancy cycling the 20 miles to work either before or after a 12 hour night shift, doubt I'd make it home in one piece lol!


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## trophywench (Apr 21, 2017)

Lucy Honeychurch said:


> I don't fancy cycling the 20 miles to work either before or after a 12 hour night shift, doubt I'd make it home in one piece lol!



I was thinking that Lucy - most of my life the nearest to home I worked was approx 17 miles, along the A456.  It took an hour by train and longer by road in a car. Other times it's been much further, involving motorways.  That's the trouble when you get used to the money you get by doing a specialist job - there aren't actually all that many of em!


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## Matt Cycle (Apr 21, 2017)

Excuses, excuses.  Think of reasons why you can do something rather than why you can't. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39654581


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## trophywench (Apr 21, 2017)

It's a bit like packing in smoking or reducing carbs or basal testing I think - you have actually got to WANT to do it, in order to be successful !  LOL


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## Amigo (Apr 21, 2017)

trophywench said:


> It's a bit like packing in smoking or reducing carbs or basal testing I think - you have actually got to WANT to do it, in order to be successful !  LOL



Not just want to but be able to Jenny. Not everyone is for a variety of reasons, none of which are to do with laziness or avoidance.


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## Martin Canty (Apr 21, 2017)

So, for me, it would involve getting my bicycle out of the garage & parking it in the front yard (oh the joys of working from home). Though, even living so close to LA, the air at 7,000 feet is very clean.

Seriously, now that I have repaired the garage door opener, the plan is to start cycling after work.


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## MikeTurin (Apr 21, 2017)

Greyhound Gal said:


> Probably also depends where you live and the level of pollution though. Personally, I have no desire to cycle through smog with exhaust fumes pumping out into my face.


Not to add the problem with distracted dtivers and holes in the road. Used a foldable bike to go to work, finally fed up when I falled from the bike because I didn't see a hole, ended with a cracked rib.
Now I simply walk by foot, with the added bonus that I have way less problems with bad drivers.


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## MikeTurin (Apr 21, 2017)

Matt Cycle said:


> Excuses, excuses.  Think of reasons why you can do something rather than why you can't.
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39654581


"What makes it worth it for me is that I love riding my bike, it helps me relax before and after work and if I can do it all year round then I will."
May I add that cycling in the city made me unrelaxed, while walking relaxes me?


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## Matt Cycle (Apr 21, 2017)

MikeTurin said:


> "What makes it worth it for me is that I love riding my bike, it helps me relax before and after work and if I can do it all year round then I will."
> May I add that cycling in the city made me unrelaxed, while walking relaxes me?



Well at least you're still doing something Mike which is more than most.  One of the problems in most cities is infrastructure - cycle paths etc.  If you build them and make it safe then people will use them.  Just look at London, yes it's still not perfect but they're making a reasonable job of it  - TfL are saying cyclists will outnumber car drivers entering central London in the 'rush' hour in the next few years.  Copenhagen have had the infrastructure in place for years and now over 50% of city dwellers commute by bike.


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## MikeTurin (Apr 21, 2017)

Matt Cycle said:


> Well at least you're still doing something Mike which is more than most.  One of the problems in most cities is infrastructure - cycle paths etc.  If you build them and make it safe then people will use them.


Agree. I have a mountain bike and when I was living in the country I used it a lot, and felt safe to use it, even without cycle paths because I used dirt roads and the countryside roads are with lower traffic and few intersections. Now the bike is at my parents house and sometimes use it for errands or leisure trips. In Turin there are some stretches of cycle paths but most of them are unusable by design or become unusable or closed for safety reasons due lack of maintenance.


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## Martin Canty (Apr 21, 2017)

Matt Cycle said:


> One of the problems in most cities is infrastructure


For me, the Poster Child of a bike friendly city is Mammoth Lakes in California... There is pretty much a dedicated cycle & foot path network totally separate from the road network


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## trophywench (Apr 21, 2017)

Thing with our cities though, is that folk have to commute from very long distances.  Not everyone can live that close to the business districts of cities at all - there isn't that much housing for instance nearish the city centre of Birmingham other than two Council estates and several blocks of private and expensive apartments.

The next nearest would be the Small Heath area - mainly long roads of Victorian terraced houses.  Very few with gardens - HUGE Irish and Muslim population.  Or the other side - Edgbaston and Harborne - in the main, very large individual detached houses in their own grounds.

Consequently most live further out where builders built estates of reasonable family housing with reasonable gardens and schools and parks and shops and doctors surgeries - which means your dicing with death twice every work day in the rush-hour traffic on the clogged up roads with all the cars, buses, lorries and white vans.

Don't really think you'd (or anyone else would enjoy) cycling along heavily congested roads like that Matt, not if you wanted to stay alive in the first place or as healthy as you want to be, anyway.

I rather enjoyed the longish walks to and from the train station myself when I worked in the centre of Birmingham!  (not between the station and work - the one to or from home to the station)


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## HOBIE (Apr 24, 2017)

Martin Canty said:


> So, for me, it would involve getting my bicycle out of the garage & parking it in the front yard (oh the joys of working from home). Though, even living so close to LA, the air at 7,000 feet is very clean.
> 
> Seriously, now that I have repaired the garage door opener, the plan is to start cycling after work.


Good for you Martin. Being fit is a good thing for any one of us.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 24, 2017)

My commute is about eleven miles. My house is just a few hundred yards away from a disused railway line that takes me about halfway. You need a mountain bike to use it because not all of it has a decent surface. The rest of the journey is urban, there are some roadside cycle paths but they can be a little impractical so, as an experienced urban cyclist, I often ride on the road. I think that cycling being good for avoiding heart disease is a statement of the bleeding obvious, when I have my check ups my cholesterol and blood pressure readings are always good (I'm 58). I have a fairly economical car but cycling to work still saves me a shedload of money.


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## mikeyB (Apr 25, 2017)

So if you cut out cancer and heart disease, what are we supposed to die of? You can't stop it happening, that's part of the deal, and when your number's up, that's it. Perfectly fit and healthy golfers get struck by lightning. Bet they didn't think that would happen as they ate their muesli that morning.


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## Pine Marten (Apr 25, 2017)

I live in air-polluted north London and never learned to ride a bike as a child as my mum didn't let me have one.

I am afraid that cyclists (present company excepted of course  !) bring out the worst in me daily, as they race past our front gate (Mr Marten has nearly been knocked over more than once); come hurtling down the pavement weaving in and out of the pedestrians; ride into the traffic the wrong way along our one-way road (I was gobsmacked the first time I witnessed this); ding their bell as they come up behind you; don't ding their bell as they come up thereby scaring the willies out of you; jump the lights...and so on. I had a row with two of them the other night as I was coming home as they came towards me on the pavement in the dark, with no lights. I was accused of 'disrespecting' them by complaining that they should be in the road. Or (I suggested) - get off their bums and walk. Ho hum. Sorry about that - I needed to rant about them, whether it's healthy or not. Actually, if they continue then it won't be at all healthy for them, cos I'll batter them into the ground. Ok, carry on as you were


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## mikeyB (Apr 25, 2017)

Don't worry, PM, they'll take themselves out of the gene pool soon enough.


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