By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Oct 06, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in Diabetes Care suggests that women with diabetes mellitus type 2 may reduce their risk for breast cancer if they do moderate physical exercise often.

Physical exercise is good for the health and it's linked to reduced risk for many types of chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrom, and heart disease among others.

Torres-Mejía G of National Institute of Public Health, Center for Population Health Research in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and colleagues conducted the study and found  diabetes mellitus was linked to increased risk of breast cancer, but moderate physical exercise was associated with reduced risk in diabetic women.

The study of 1000 incident cases of diabetes mellitus and 1,074 controls showed the association between diabetes mellitus and breast cancer decreased as the load of moderately intense physical activity with those having diabetes and lower physical exercise were nearly 5 times as likely as those who had diabetes, but the highest load of moderate physical exercise.

The researchers concluded "Moderate-intensity physical activity can substantially ameliorate the increased BC risk in diabetic women."