Running for the bus and taking the stairs may help ward off cancer, with Australian-led research showing that less than five minutes of incidental vigorous exercise a day can be oncoprotective. 

University of Sydney authors say 3.5 minutes of intense cleaning and carrying groceries was linked to an 18% lower incidence of cancer versus those who did not get their heart racing. 

And just 4.5 minutes of such incidental exercise — dubbed vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) — was tied to a 32% reduction in risk of incidence of physical activity-related cancer incidence.  

The researchers stressed their results were observational but added they pointed to a strong link between exercise and cancer incidence as shown in previous studies.