Cycling or walking to work lowers your risk of several cancers, new research finds.

Cycling or walking to work will reduce your risk of several types of cancer, according to new research out of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

While earlier studies had established exercise reduced the risk of a number of cancers, they hadn’t specifically looked at how people travel to work, with active transport a sure way to meet health guidelines for exercise.

“It is one thing to say that people should be encouraged to be more physically active but simply telling them to ‘exercise more’ often doesn’t stick,” says Professor Alistair Woodward, an author of both studies and a public health researcher at the University of Auckland.

“Life is busy, and advice given in isolation rarely leads to lasting change. Using regular commuting as the vehicle for getting physical activity into people’s lives, is far more likely to lead to sustained change.”

In the first of two recent studies, lead author Dr Win Thu and colleagues examined 27 recent studies to establish that walking and/or cycling to work reduces the risk of breast cancer by 12 percent, endometrial cancer by 30 percent and colorectal (bowel or colon) cancer by 11 percent. See Environmental Health.

The latest study, using more than 250,000 health and life-event records from the UK Biobank and correlated with similar anonymised records for the population of Aotearoa, New Zealand, found dramatic reductions for a number of other cancers with active transport, walking or cycling, to work.

Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study found cycling to work was linked to a lower risk of colon cancer (28 percent), kidney cancer (40 percent) and stomach cancer (73 percent).

Walking to work was also associated with reduced risks of kidney cancer (33 percent) and liver cancer (45 percent).

There were signs cycling to work may help prevent other cancers too, but the evidence wasn’t strong enough to be conclusive, probably because fewer than 8 percent of participants were regular cyclists.

Dr Sandar Tin Tin, a public health researcher at the University of Auckland, says, “In light of these findings, active commuting should be promoted as an effective lifestyle intervention to prevent cancer and support better health and a cleaner environment.”

Woodward, who leads the University of Auckland’s health and transport research team, says: “Most research on active commuting has focused on heart disease, not cancer. Dr Win Thu’s work helps fill that gap by looking at common cancers that may be less likely in people who are more active.”

Earlier research out of the same team found that cyclists are the happiest commuters, and that cycling is safer than many people think.

“This new study is part of a bigger picture – our transport system is harming health, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” Woodward says.

“According to the NZ Household Travel Survey, two thirds of car trips are five kilometres or less. There’s no good reason we couldn’t match cities overseas where walking and cycling are ten times more common.”

Woodward says research supports the idea that our physical environment shapes our activity, including how we get to work, more than individual advice.

This research shows environments that encourage people to walk or cycle to work will reduce their risk of many types of cancer.

Diabetes patients in South Auckland had remarkable success in a trial of using community pharmacists as coaches.

A pilot programme in South Auckland has shown that community pharmacists, working closely with general practice nurses, can significantly reduce blood sugar levels for people with diabetes – and keep them down.
 
Type 2 diabetes is a major health challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand, leading to preventable complications such as dialysis, amputations, vision loss, and heart disease.
 
The programme, run by Counties Manukau Health and funded by the Ministry of Health, enrolled a total of around 60 people, with a new paper focusing on 26 participants who enrolled early and had long-term follow-up data. See Journal of Primary Healthcare.
 
Participating pharmacist, Carole Baxter, at Unichem Tuakau Pharmacy recalls one patient whom she and the nurse referred to as ‘the poster boy’.
 
“We told him what he would need to do – lifestyle changes, moving more, improving his eating and taking his medications. Whatever we said, he did. He ended up not needing to take any medications.”
 
Baxter believes the pilot would have been even more successful if it hadn’t coincided with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
“It shows that diabetes patients really need a coach,” Baxter says. “It was often simple things like finding people weren’t testing regularly because they had left their meter at a tāngi or moved house and couldn’t find it. Issues that were easily resolved.”
 
Baxter wrote long-term-condition plans for the patients and is still following up with activities like checking they have an appointment to get their next script. “A few days later, the script turns up in the pharmacy,” she says.
 
At the outset of the trial, patients’ average HbA1c was 97.6 mmol/mol.
 
HbA1c, a long-term measure of blood sugar control, should ideally be under 53 mmol/mol – a target many people do not meet.
 
During the pilot, patients had an average reduction of 25.2 mmol/mol, or 20.7 mmol/mol for Māori and Pacific participants.
 
When the patients were followed up after seven months, the participants had sustained their improvements
 
Most, participants (85 percent) improved their HBA1C by at least 5 mmol/mol.
 
“Rates of prescribing of newer diabetes medicines such as empagliflozin and dulaglutide, were higher than comparable studies in people with type 2 diabetes in New Zealand eligible for these treatments,” says lead author Dr Natalie Gauld, an honorary senior lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.
 
“We’d love to see a larger trial with more pharmacies and a comparison group,” says Gauld.
 
“Having a pharmacist mentor would help build confidence and support pharmacists in this new way of working. It’s also vital to involve Māori and Pacific communities in designing the next phase.”
 
Dr Sue Tutty, GP liaison at Counties Manukau and co-author, says the programme highlights the value of collaboration.
 
“It showed how relatively small interventions, utilising a team-based model of care, can have a significant impact on outcomes.”
 
Researchers recommend scaling up the approach with more emphasis on team-based care and better integration between pharmacies and general practices, mentoring for pharmacists, and additional support for patients who feel overwhelmed or disconnected from the health system.
 
“This project is scalable now with the resources we currently have in the community, and with motivation and project support,” Tutty says.

29 October 2025 – In a speech presented today at the CBA Global Markets conference, RBNZ Director of Financial Markets, Adam Richardson, outlined the transmission of recent New Zealand Official Cash Rate (OCR) cuts to domestic financial conditions is playing out largely as expected.

Mr Richardson conveyed that financial conditions in New Zealand have loosened, with interest rates falling and credit conditions becoming more favourable.

“As with any cycle, there are some unique features that we have had to take account of when assessing the stance of monetary policy,” Mr Richardson said.

In the speech, Mr Richardson highlighted that some of these features are the result of domestic developments, such as a temporary shift in mortgage holder preference for shorter terms in expectation of further rate cuts. Others are the result of global factors, such as higher global term premia and their contribution to a significant steepening in government sovereign bond yield curves.

As part of its monetary policy deliberations, the MPC accounts for the various domestic and global factors that push financial conditions around, allowing it to effectively steer domestic financial conditions to be consistent with the inflation target.

Mr Richardson also stressed that, “the cash flow channel is an important and very visible part of monetary policy transmission. However, other channels of transmission potentially play a more important role.”
 
More information:

2025 Commonwealth Bank Global Markets Conference – Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua: https://govt.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd316aa7ee4f5679c56377819&id=50ee4e5a41&e=f3c68946f8