It seems these days like killer toxins are lurking in every corner of your home, office or school. Here's another finding to fuel your paranoia -- a fire retardant used in many couches called PBDE has been linked to lots of problems, including cancer and autism in children. While PBDEs aren't used in sofas any more, chances are you have an older sofa in your house -- I know I do. What's more, a different fire retardant chemical, called Tris, is replacing PBDEs in furniture, and it's been shown to be just as deadly.

What can we do, aside from building our own furniture, to escape the onslaught of harmful toxins in our home? Or is it something we should even be concerned about in the first place?

I am fairly certain each one of us knows by now that exercise is good for a body that was designed to move in order to function at top efficiency and maintain health. Extolling the virtues of exercise is in the news almost daily now. There are organizations devoted to raising awareness about the benefits of exercise. Our government has launched programs to get people up and moving. There is a huge commercial industry built around exercise. Exercise is one of the single best ways to reduce risk of many diseases, including cancer. Common sense might be enough to support the message about the benefits of exercise, but it is interesting to know why it works as well as it does -- and that it isn't just the latest lifestyle fad of the decade.

Australian researchers report that exercise promotes an increase in a protein that blocks cancerous cell growth and induces cancerous cell death. The beneficial protein, IGFBP-3, that increases with exercise, blocks a different protein, IGF-1, from stimulating cancerous cell growth and forming new blood vessels that feed tumors. So the next time we are deciding whether or not to take that walk or run -- as the couch is beckoning us to sit and rest a spell -- just imagine we might be deciding which team of proteins we want to help do its job. In the fight against cancer and for cancer prevention, it's enough to make a body move.