Friday, December 9, 2011

You Can Still Exercise With Cancer or In Recovery

Below article sent from
David Haas
Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance Guest Blogger
http://about.me/haasblaag


You Can Still Exercise With Cancer or In Recovery
 
Two factors that can significantly help cancer patients and those recovering from the disease include exercise and eating healthy. The eating aspect is a bit self-evident. By providing the body the right fuels and nutrients, it then has the raw resources to aid healing and recovery. The fitness side of the picture, however, is a bit more involved. Many who are diagnosed or just recovering may think at first fitness is out of the picture for the time being. It's a good day when a person has enough energy to get out of bed and get through the day with cancer or recovering from the related surgery or treatment.
 
Repeat studies continue to support the premise, however, that fitness provide cancer patients and survivors increased energy, increased body strength and endurance, and increased cardiovascular capability. All three aspects are extremely important in aiding recovery from cancer.
 
For example, women who are going through have had breast cancer surgery have to relearn the chest and arm muscle control area sometimes after the cancer removal. Surgery can result in painful arm and shoulder limitation until the body learns to re-use the muscle group again connected to the chest area. Colorectal cancer patients who ate healthy and maintained physical fitness enjoyed the benefits of an improved digestion system, enhancing and extending their measured life periods longer than similar cancer patients who didn't exercise at all. Patients with mesothelioma conditions realize increased breathing capacity.
 
Fitness also has sociability and mood benefits for cancer patients, worn down by repeat tests, treatments, and pain. Exercise repeatedly helps people gain a better mood, fend of depression, reduce their exhaustion of fatigue from treatment, and it has the side benefit of fending of weight gain and diabetes exposure as well.
 
Granted, patients and recovering survivors in many cases can't just start the first day and run 11 miles or begin bench-pressing 300 lbs. sets for an hour. Many times patients and survivors need to accept that basic stretch, body lifting through slow, low-impact exercises like Pilates, and walking may be the limit of what's possible in a given day. However, any level of exercise that increases the body's cardiovascular rate for at least 20 minutes daily is beneficial for patients.
 
Before taking on any new exercise program, a patient in diagnosis, treatment, or recovering from cancer should talk with his or her doctor first to be aware of what is safe. A trained cancer doctor will be able to confirm which exercises will work the best for a given status and condition, instead of making the patient's situation worse.

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