A new study shows that women who exercise regularly as teenagers have a lower risk of dying later in life from cancer or a variety of other causes in middle and old age. The researchers asked 75,000 Chinese women between the ages of 40 and 70 if they regularly participated in various types of exercise between the ages of 13 and 19 and, if so, how long they had done so. The researchers also looked at the women’s general lifestyle habits in adulthood, including participation in various sports. They then followed these women for up to 13 years to see how many of them ended up dying from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other causes. In total, 5,282 women died in this study, including 2,375 from cancer and 1,620 from cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that compared to women who never exercised at all throughout their teenage years, women in the study who exercised weekly and for more than 80 minutes during their teenage years had a 16 percent lower risk of dying from cancer and a 15 percent lower risk of dying from any cause over the course of the 13-year study. However, too much exercise does not provide any additional benefit as far as longevity is concerned. Women who exercised for more than 80 minutes per week as teenagers had a 13 percent lower risk of death from all causes over the 13-year study period compared to those who did not exercise at all during adolescence. The study also found that women who exercised during adolescence or adulthood had a 20 percent lower risk of death from any cause during the study period compared to those who did not exercise at all. The former group had a 17 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 13 percent lower risk of dying from cancer compared to women who lacked exercise. The study results were published in the journal CancerEpidemiolBiomarkersPrev.