By: Liz Davies
Doctors and other healthcare professionals for a long time have been promoting the idea that physical activity along with a healthy diet can help prevent cancer. Recent research is now suggesting that when cancer patients exercise during and after their treatment, the cancer may be less likely to recur. After surviving a cancer diagnosis and the rigorous treatment that it requires, patients should consider all avenues for staying healthy.
Studies have shown that women who have undergone treatment for breast cancer and then take part in a regular exercise program had a lower recurrence rate. Patients who have survived colon cancer and then exercise lived longer than those patients who did not exercise.
Exactly What Are the Benefits?
Firstly, exercise will benefit a cancer patient in the same ways that it helps the average healthy person. Exercise results in less body fat, stronger muscles, increase in stamina, and weight loss or maintenance of a healthy weight. Like with anyone who exercises, the chances of conditions like heart disease and diabetes are reduced.
Exercise after cancer can also make cancer survivors feel better about themselves. Their moods improve, they feel better emotionally, and the fatigue that cancer treatment can cause is reduced.
What Kind and How Much Physical Activity?
Results of research have revealed that people often become less active after they have received a cancer diagnosis. Depression, anxiety, and the treatments themselves make them fatigued. After treatment, they may tend to stay inactive, but doing this is not the way to overcome the fatigue.
If it all possible, it is important to start some type of exercise right away after diagnosis or treatment to get back into shape.
· Aerobic style exercises can burn calories, keep weight off, improve stamina, and they are ideal for a healthy heart. Lung cancer and mesothelioma causes patients to focus on this type of exercise to increase lung capacity. This can include brisk walking, jogging, and swimming.
· Flexibility exercises like stretches can help to keep the patient moving and they are perfect for someone who isn’t quite ready for anything more demanding.
· Muscle is often lost during arduous cancer treatments. Isometric-type exercises and light weight lifting is perfect to get the muscles built back up again.
When healthy people want to use exercise to help prevent cancer, 30 to 60 minutes a day 5 days a week is recommended. While it is agreed that this amount would be helpful for cancer patients as well, many patients may not be ready for this strenuous a schedule. They should start out with a smaller goal and then build up. Even increasing the amount they normally walk through short walks scattered throughout the day can help.
Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April.
Image via Wikipedia
