My Health and Fitness Journal

This is a guest posting by David Haas about the benefits of fitness and eating healthy during and after a diagnosis of any kind of cancer. Please visit their advocacy site at http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/. 

The common side effects of any cancer treatment program include fatigue, emotional disorders, nausea, and loss of mobility, digestive upset and nausea. Most of these are the results of stress. Emotional stress begins with a diagnosis. Patients are suddenly faced with the prospect of mortality and the choices of physically taxing and financially draining treatments. Since the body is a interdependent system, this emotional stress can cause physiological changes that begin to reduce the quality of life well before active treatment begins.

Treatment itself introduces physical stress. Chemotherapy and radiation, even the newer types that provide precision targeting of cancer cells, put a toxic burden on the body. Hormone therapy likewise changes the physiology and upsets the internal balance. Surgery is always traumatic, more or less depending on the invasiveness of the procedure. The physical stress of treatment can make a patient more susceptible to emotional problems and introduce numerous symptoms.

The common response to treatment-related symptoms is prescription of pharmaceuticals to alleviate individual symptoms. This approach results in added expense, and drugs can cause yet more side effects. An clinically proven alternative to managing stress, and associated symptoms, is exercise.

How Does Exercise Help with Stress Reduction?
The physiological changes that occur with a regular workout program can be summed up as follows.

* Increased circulation leading to higher oxygen levels in the blood and better dispersal of nutrients
* increased production of growth-promoting and anti-inflammatory hormones
* better balance of mood-enhancing neurochemicals
* increased mobility and flexibility
* stronger self-image and lighter mood

All of these changes have been verified by exercise science, and any of them have been positively documented in cancer patients engaged in regular workout programs. It is these changes that are ultimately responsible for findings of the ability of exercise to reduce experience of fatigue and other symptoms.

Is Exercise Safe for Cancer Patients?
Most common forms of cancer have been tested for compatibility with exercise. Breast cancer patients have been monitored, and experts have determined that moderate-intensity workouts are safe in most cases and require no supervision. Lung cancer, long thought to preclude any type of meaningful physical activity, may require more precautions, but patients have achieved higher quality of life without from problems.

Safety depends on the specific treatment program, type of cancer, and overall fitness status. The message from research experts is exercise programs can be created for safe use by every cancer patient. The only rules are to avoid over-exertion by starting with easier workouts and choose exercise deemed most appropriate to the circumstance. Post-surgery patients will benefit from specific exercise, just as patients receiving hormone therapy will benefit from weight-bearing exercises to preserve bone density.

The effects of exercise on rare cancers like mesothelioma have not been researched as thoroughly as other cancers. This is largely due to a lack of participants rather than patient limitations. The best option with a rare form of cancer is to find a specialist. This will ensure that complimentary therapies are safe and result in maximum benefits.

David Haas

http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/