To build muscle you are tearing the muscles and letting it heal. Does this not increase risk of mutations that might turn into cancer like how repeated damage to skin or lung cells can cause cancer?
I don’t think it is a cancer risk but I would like an explanation as to why.
In: Biology
Genetic damage is what causes cancer. Your cells have a system in place to “commit suicide” if they stop functioning correctly. Through genetic damage this system can break down and the cells will fail to die gracefully. Thankfully your immune system will clean them up. You get cancer fifty to a hundred times per day. Unfortunately, sometimes the genetic damage causes the cell’s behavior to change such that it doesn’t die and it avoids the immune system. Now you’ve got a clinical case of cancer.
Cells can suffer genetic damage from ionizing radiation. For example, your body is full of radioactive potassium-40 that is constantly causing genetic damage to your cells. It can also occure when cells multiply: each time cells split, about three base pairs are accidentally changed. The former cause is why sunburns can lead to cancer. The latter cause is why children suffer disproportionately from cancer compared to young adults. But such baseline levels of genetic damage isn’t usually harmful.
Since exercise isn’t causing genetic damage and is boosting your cancer-fighting immune system, it isn’t a cancer risk.
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