People who cycle to work reduce their risk of cancer and heart disease by almost half, research suggests.
According to the five-year study of more than 250,000 people, those who cycle for their commute have a 46% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 45% lower risk of developing cancer than people who drive to work or take public transport.
Cycling everyday keeps the doctor away (@modacitylife)
The research, carried out by experts from the University of Glasgow, concluded that overall cyclists have a 41% lower risk of premature death from any cause.
You can read the full article here.
Cycling: the “miracle pill”
In an article by the Guardian’s Peter Walker, cycling is described as a “miracle pill” that could save the NHS:
“Imagine if a team of scientists devised a drug which massively reduced people’s chances of developing cancer or heart disease, cutting their overall likelihood of dying early by 40%. This would be front page news worldwide, a Nobel prize as good as in the post.
That drug is already here, albeit administered in a slightly different way: it’s called cycling to work. One of the more puzzling political questions is why it is so rarely prescribed on a population-wide level.”
Walker argues that encouraging bike use to Dutch or Danish levels could do more than perhaps any other single intervention to save the NHS from collapse:
“Study after study has shown far too many Britons live almost entirely sedentary lives. Research last month showed 6 million middle-aged people in England don’t even take a single brisk walk longer than 10 minutes in an average month.”
People are seemingly aware of the health benefits but for all the talk of a bike boom, cycle commuting rates have remained fairly static at about 3%, while only about 1% or 2% of all trips involve a bike:
“Transforming this would involve many years of political will to construct safe bike routes across the UK, and to disincentivise driving for short trips.”
You can read the full article here.