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Health & Fitness

Exercise for Cancer? You're Kidding!

At a time when life seems out of control, there is one more step a person who is battling cancer can take - exercise!

I'm pretty comfortable in saying that everyone knows someone who has cancer. Perhaps you have it yourself or are a cancer survivor. I must say personally I know more cancer survivors than the opposite. Today's treatments have vastly improved and whereas in the past the treatment was often the cause of death, today one can tolerate the treatments better.

We've all heard that exercise and diet play a key part of cancer prevention (and I'm not going to talk about that today) but people still get cancer anyway. And once they have it they have to start a course of treatment to control or get rid of it and the types of treatment are as many as the kinds of cancer themselves.

There are side effects to cancer treatment that can be unpleasant as well as making everyday living a challenge. Some of the side effects include fatigue, loss of functional ability, loss of sleep, loss of muscle mass and bone density, loss of body weight, osteoporosis and fracture risk, lymphedema, peripheral neuropathy, infection, nausea and more.

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There is one common denominator in all of these issues though. They can all be lessened by incorporating exercise into one's treatment plan. Exercise can alleviate many of the symptoms and side effects of cancer and its treatments. It can also offer a modicum of control in a time when so much of one's life seems out of control. One may suddenly find their life being dictated by doctor appointments, treatment appointments and a lack of energy to accomplish day-to-day activities.

Exercise is one area that the cancer victim can have an opportunity to have some power, some say, in how life is going to be dealt with. It's an opportunity to improve the odds of beating cancer and have a better quality of life while doing it! It's an area where control is in the hands of the patient.

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It used to be thought that rest was the most important thing a cancer patient could do. While rest is important, if one doesn't take a proactive partnership in their treatment, the side effects can leave them in a much worse state even if they beat the disease.

Treatment is not kind to cancer or the body. The medicines used often don’t discriminate against sick body parts and healthy ones, therefore destroying parts that are good and viable. A weakened immune system can lead to infection; chemicals that float around one’s system can cause nausea, weakness, constipation and pain (such as from radiation and chemotherapy); and one can become anxious and lose self esteem. Treatments can cause weight gain which can lead to heart disease.

So what can be done to fight the negative effects of treatment and help one to go on living, and even to want to go on living? You guessed it, EXERCISE!

Fatigue is serious side effect of treatment and it seems odd to say that what one needs when they’re already tired is to get up and move around, but it’s true. Exercise has to be balanced with the fatigue but it should not be avoided. The patient will be rewarded with more energy. It will improve one’s ability to sleep as well, and to have a better quality of sleep, therefore reducing fatigue even more. A person who is anemic or dehydrated can also have fatigue so it’s important to have all factors considered and treated as well.

A survivor who is rested has more functional ability and so day-to-day activities can be done without getting so tired. This keeps life more normal and is important for survivors.

A person who exercises can have better fitness in as little as nine weeks, which is great improvement over the standard "rest and relax" type of treatment that used to be the norm.

Weight training can keep muscle density and reduce the amount of bone loss, therefore helping to prevent osteoporosis and fracture risk as well. It can help keep body weight down at a time when chemo can cause weight gain. Exercise can even help control nausea in patients taking chemo treatments.

Caution must used when exercising during treatment, however. Patients with lymphedema must exercise caution in the body part with the swelling. People can have peripheral neuropathy, which can make it challenging to handle weights and people with a weakened immune system can have a better chance of getting infections in public places so need to avoid other people with illnesses. Nausea can leave one not feeling like exercising at all, as does constipation and pain.

One doesn't need to start exercising in a full-blown manner to see results. It's likely they wouldn’t be able to do so anyway. But it’s important to try to work in small amounts of exercise, such as walking or walking in place, into one’s daily activities. Even two minutes here and there throughout the day can have great effect on one’s physical well being. Start small if necessary and increase when possible. The more one exercises and builds strength the more one can exercise and do more. Progressing to 20-30 minutes is the goal, but several two-minute sessions throughout the day will get the ball rolling.

Exercise is not a panacea for all the problems associated with cancer and its treatments, but it is one more weapon in arsenal of treatment of the disease, and it available at a time when one needs all the weapons they can get. Talk to your doctor about adding exercise to your treatment if you are fighting cancer. Talk to your friends and family if they are the ones with the illness. Do what you can to help them get the help they need to win the fight. Anything we can do to improve the quality of life for someone struggling with the disease will be a valued gift at a time when so much has been taken away.

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