Lani Lopez – Exercise Against Cancer

British research into cancer treatment and recovery offers exciting hope for cancer sufferers and has turned medical advice on its head.

Cancer specialists in the UK have for many years advised cancer patients to rest during and after cancer treatment. New research has turned that advice now to instruction for patients to get out and exercise immediately.

New treatment advice

One of Britain’s leading cancer specialists, Jane Maher, chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support explains, "The advice I would previously have given to one of my patients would have been to 'take it easy.' This has now changed significantly. There really needs to be a cultural change so that health professionals see physical activity as an integral part of cancer after-care, not just an optional add-on."

The findings that led to this change are truly astonishing and Dr. Maher says they should be grabbing widespread attention for the benefits of exercise. “If physical exercise were a drug, it would be hitting the headlines."

Huge advantages of exercise

It deserves to hit the headlines too, with the research uncovering these remarkable cancer-killing properties of exercise.

For prostate cancer, exercise reduces the risk of dying from the disease by up to 30%.
For breast cancer, exercise can reduce the risk of the cancer recurring by 40%.
For bowel cancer, patients' risk of dying from the disease can be cut by around 50%

Even in the midst of that most terrifying of life challenges, cancer treatment, the benefits of exercise are now clear and bring new hope for cancer recovery.

So the crucial questions then are what sort of exercise do we need to do and how much of it?

The good news is that every little bit counts.  Lead researcher Professor Robert Thomas explains, "It doesn't need to be anything too strenuous – doing the gardening, going for a brisk walk or a swim, all count."

The question of how much to do is a little more complex, Professor Thomas says. “All patients getting cancer treatment should be told to do two-and-a-half hours of physical exercise every week.”

But he suggests more exercise be done for some specific cancers. Bowel cancer patients, for example, are told that by “doing around 6 hours of moderate physical activity a week their risk of dying from the disease can be cut by around 50%.”

First, get started

if you are unsure of where to start with an exercise programme, walk. Don’t worry about where to walk, how long for or how far to go.  Just put on your shoes and get out the door. Once you’re actually out walking, decisions of how fast, how long and how far, take care of themselves.

To keep going, put two things in place. First, find a partner or team.  Committing to a morning or evening walk in your own mind is one thing. Making a date to meet a friend at the corner, at a specific time to walk together is a far more committed thing and much harder to get out of.  A friend in fitness is a friend indeed. 

Kids are great motivators too. A walk with a child of any age to start the day, or before or after dinner, very quickly becomes a treasured routine.

Then, set a goal, (say complete ten walks), and agree on a small reward with your fitness friend.  Bigger goals, say your first forty- or sixty-minute walk, deserve a bigger reward.

Exercise for a healthier and happier you.

The greatest reward of course is wellbeing. Exercise has multiple health benefits. We can go quite literally from head to toe and find them everywhere: exercise improves brain function, memory and focus, eye health, balance, heart, breast, lungs, digestive function, kidneys, prostate, joints and circulation.  This is by no means a comprehensive list. 

Exercise is unparalleled in attaining and maintaining good health.  We know we should do it and now we know that it is never too late to start.

Don’t wait for exercise to be part of your treatment plan. Start today.