Women who exercise face less risk of osteoporosis and breast cancer

REGULAR exercise and physical activity can significantly reduce the risk of both breast cancer and osteoporosis the keynote speaker told a ‘women in sport’ conference yesterday.

From her research with DCU, Dr Catherine Woods said females who took up physical activity at a younger age were at far less risk of osteoporosis, a condition affecting one in four Irish women.

“From a study into two groups of women, one who did regular exercise over a year, the other which didn’t, found there was a much higher rate of bone mass density among the girls who exercised,” said Dr Woods.

“On average, they have a 5 to 10% higher bone destiny than sedentary females.

“Women who didn’t exercise over the year lost 2% in bone density, while those doing regular exercise saw their bone density increase by 1%.”

Regular exercise also reduces the risk of breast cancer.

“Ireland has a higher rate of breast cancer than the EU average,” Dr Woods said.

“But we found that women doing just one to three hours exercise a week can see a 20 to 30% reduction in the risk of breast cancer. This rises to a 60% reduction in the risk for women doing four or more hours exercise a week.”

However, participation in sport among young girls is falling in the country and it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Results of another study into 15 to 17-year-olds in South County Dublin found 32% of the girls in this age group were not physically active in any sport.

“There are a variety of barriers to young girls getting involved in sport,” Dr Woods said.

“It is still a male-dominated arena, and the ratio of male to female coaches is 2:1. Sport is still feminised, finals are still known as ladies finals and some women teams feel the need to hire image consultants.

“In this age of obesity, we have to be careful not to link physical activity in with weight loss, but we have to look at ways of getting more young girls involved in sport. We have to get rid of this attitude where girls don’t believe themselves to be the sporty type.”

Fine Gael spokesman Jimmy Deenihan TD said the work should start in primary school.

“The big issue from people on the ground is physical education in primary schools,” he said.

“Teachers are saying that there are kids coming to them very unfit and uncoordinated and teachers are having to work on basic skills like walking and running properly with them before even getting them involved in sport.

“There is no onus on teachers to do PE, it is not obligatory and that is a factor. Another thing that bugs teachers is that when inspectors come around to schools they never ask them about their PE classes. It is vital to instill an attitude of fitness at a young age. Children might drift away from physical activity for a spell but they are far more likely to come back to it later in life if they were active as children.”