Joe wrote:Here is another amazing benefit of weightlifting, it may cut cancer risk by 40%.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/commen ... es_cancer/
I would be very skeptical of this "study" that showed how strength conditioning reduces your cancer risk by a whopping 40%. The study appeared on the Mercola website, and while you will find a lot of good health information there, you will also find some very misleading and sensationalistic garbage, too.
Mercola speculates that the reason for the lower cancer risk is that working out reduces your insulin response. This is one of Mercola's hobby horses that is very misleading. Thus, he recommends, for example, that you should limit your intake of all fructose, regardless if it is from a natural or unnatural source, such as high fructose corn syrup. There is no evidence whatsoever that people who have a high fruit intake experience obesity or cancer--if anything, the opposite is true.
Weight lifting, in and of itself, will not reduce your cancer risk. However, people who work out generally have a healthier lifestyle, which would more likely account for any reduced cancer risk. I doubt any study could possibly account for all these factors, despite their claims.
On the other hand, other researchers have pointed out that excessive strength training can contribute to acidification of the body pH, through an excessive production of lactic acid, and this acidification can lead to inflammation, which is common among rigorous strength trainers. Acidification is a major contributor to creating an environment in your body beneficial to cancer development.
Don't get me wrong--I'm not saying working out will cause cancer--but an alkalizing diet, full of fresh greens, is important as part of your regimen to counter-act any acid build up, as Nayto has pointed out.