This Is How Strength Training Can Protect Your Body From Cancer
Key takeaways
- Author: Sela Breen June 27, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen.
- A new study published in Nature Communications found that healthy muscle releases tiny protective particles that help keep tumor growth in check, and that losing muscle as you age may quietly weaken that defense.
- Researchers at the Duke-NUS medical school wanted to understand why sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, is so consistently tied to worse cancer outcomes.
Why this matters: practical guidance grounded in recent research or expert insight.
Author: Sela Breen June 27, 2026Assistant Health Editor By Sela Breen Assistant Health Editor Sela Breen is the Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied journalism, international studies, and theatre.Image by Fresh Splash / i Stock June 27, 2026Your muscles do a lot more than keep you upright and moving. They contract, they generate force, and, as a growing body of research is revealing, they actively communicate with other organs in your body.
A new study published in Nature Communications found that healthy muscle releases tiny protective particles that help keep tumor growth in check, and that losing muscle as you age may quietly weaken that defense. But there is something you can do to rebuild that resistance.
Researchers at the Duke-NUS medical school wanted to understand why sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, is so consistently tied to worse cancer outcomes. To analyze this, they compared muscle tissue from sarcopenic and healthy subjects, focusing on extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are particles that cells release to send signals to other parts of the body. You can think of EVs as microscopic packages muscle ships out to communicate with the rest of you.