If lower blood pressure and a better mood are not incentive enough for starting to exercise regularly, consider this: scientists now believe that lifelong physical exertion also protects against cancer and diabetes. In Boston last week researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported that athletic women cut their risk of breast and uterine cancer in half and of the most common form of diabetes by two-thirds. Says Harvard Reproductive Biologist Rose Frisch, who led the 5,398-woman study: "The long-term effects of early exercise on health are impressive."
Researchers believe the benefits occur because...