"What's the one thing I should Start doing NOW as it relates to Exercise for Cancer?"

“What’S the One Thing I Should Start Doing NOW as It Relates to Exercise for Cancer?”

“What’s the one thing I should Start doing NOW as it relates to Exercise for Cancer?”

“What’s the one thing I should Start doing NOW as it relates to Exercise for Cancer?” How to Exercise for Cancer Exercise programming for cancer may mirror the growth in the US in alternative medicine and self help. A report in Alternative Therapies Journal by Van deCreek et al suggests that exercise is second only to prayer as the top forms of complimentary therapies that breast cancer survivors have interest in (prayer=84%, exercise=76%) and actually participate in as part of their recovery (prayer=76%, exercise=38%). Secondly, the passage of the Balanced Budget Act in 1998 has curtailed many acute rehabilitation programs in the US. Therefore, many therapists are looking for programs to provide to their patients to expand their level of clinical services. In 1996, the publication of the US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity put into perspective the importance of regular exercise in maintaining and improving one’s physical health. Lastly, health centers in the US and abroad are moving in the direction of new and innovative programming. Many health clubs want to forge stronger relationships with their community medical facilities. All of these elements make for an attractive fit to provide exercise for persons with cancer. Therefore, exercise may stand on its own as the premier form of complimentary medicine for cancer survivors. Benefits of Exercise Why would a cancer survivor who has recently undergone chemotherapy or radiation wish to participate in an exercise program? In essence, patients feel better when they are in good shape. Not only are they better able to tolerate their medications, but their quality of life improves. This section details some of the major sports medicine reports that lend support to participating in exercise as a preventive approach to cancer but (according to some oncology sources) also to improve the odds for survival after diagnosis. The Epidemiology of Exercise and Cancer In the mid 1980s, Dr. Rose Frisch detailed a report that stated that former collage athletes had a marked reduction in the incidence of certain types of cancer, some by up to 45% less than their sedentary counterparts. In the late 1980s, a report from Stanford stated that persons who engage in more than three hours of physical activity per week have a reduction in certain cancers (such as colon cancer) by about 15%. These were the first epidemiological reports that looked at physical activity in cancer prevention. It wasn’t until five years later that USC Professor Dr. Leslie Bernstein showed a 60% reduction in breast cancer incidence in premenopausal women who engaged in regular exercise each day. Three years later, Dr. Ingar Thune published a Swedish study on physical activity and breast cancer incidence in 25,000 women. Her results mirrored the work at USC and showed a reduction in incidence rates by over 25%. This is impressive based on the large sample size interviewed. In general, the consensus of epidemiology reports lend a tremendous amount of statistical power to inclusion of exercise into a cancer-prevention regime. Improved Immune System Reports from the early 1990s by Dr. David Nieman confirmed that exercise enhanced natural killer (NK) cell activity. This immune system component has effects on chemoprotection. However, the criticism in the immunology community is that changes in the immune system are transient, and it is hard to pinpoint whether or not regular exercise stimulates these cells enough to produce a long-term effect. In a conversation with Dr. Nieman early in 1999, his response to this was for physiologists and physicians to understand the concept of immunoenhancement – the sum of change in the immune system over time. This changing pattern over time may improve the protective status of the immune system without being detected on a random blood draw. Nonetheless, this may explain why some persons who exercise regularly may have a reduced incidence rate of certain types of cancers. Hormonal Changes Some theories recently published by Dr. Ann McTiernan state that improving the hormone state will have a tremendous impact on cancer development. It seems as though components such as insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IG-F) have an effect on tumor development. Modulating these hormones (along with cortisol and sex hormones) may reduce the ability of tumor cells to grow and proliferate. Other Physiological Mechanisms There are other hypotheses that may indeed have an impact on tumor cell development and proliferation. Like the new angiogenesis inhibitors that are being tested in the cancer field, exercise redistributes blood flow. This redistribution may have an impact on blood supply to the developing tumor cell. Exercise also increases body core temperature, changes body pH and increases the amount of lactate produced metabolically. These changes, although not currently tested in cancer, may also have an impact on tumor cell growth. We can only speculate