The Importance of Exercise for Lymphoma Patients

I'm still cleaning out my files of links from ASH, and getting around to the things I saved before ASH. I'm backed up a lot.

I found one item from October on how exercise helps cancer patients, and then another from ASH on how exercise helps Lymphoma patients specifically.

The general cancer article from October discussed how good exercise is for cancer survivors. It reduces fatigue and improves physical function -- and "lean body mass to fat mass ratio," so we look better, too. They recommend "150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week, and 2 days per week of resistance training (e.g., with exercise bands or light weights)."

That shouldn't be too tough, right? Take a 30 minute walk 5 times a week. You even get to skip two days.

The Lymphoma research describes a session at ASH. It found that physical exercise may actually contribute to longer survival for lymphoma patients. Lymphoma survivors who increased their physical activity had a higher Overall Survival than those who decreased activity.  The researchers believe there should be more active attempts to encourage exercise in Lymphoma patients.

I recently looked back at some of my very early blog posts, and I saw how many of them involved running. I used to be a runner. Not so much any more. My knees aren't happy with me when I try. But I do try to get to the gym 3 days a week to work up a sweat, and I've tried to walk more (my phone helps me measure how many steps I have taken for the day, and I aim for 10,000, but I'm happy if I hit 8,000 on days when I can't be as active as I'd like).

I'm not going to claim that my being active has kept me alive this long. But I will say that I feel better and happier when I am being active. And I also think it's important to stress that it's really not too tough to get to that 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

But I also know that, for some of us, it's hard to be as active as we would like. It's worth talking to your doctor about what you can do to be active and get moving. If generally feeling better wasn't reason enough, then maybe the chance at a higher Overall Survival rate might be the incentive.

(One more thing -- one of the researchers for this study was Dr. Carrie Thompson. She was also the lead researcher on the Quality of Life study I wrote about a couple weeks ago. I'm happy that research like this is taking place. As much as I crave research reports that look at new treatments, I also know that we actually have to live our lives, day to day. I appreciate solid research that gives us some direction on how to extend our lives while we enjoy the time that we have. Dr. Thompson is quickly becoming one of those Lymphoma Rock Stars that I like to follow.)

Since we're coming so close to the beginning of a new year, when we traditionally resolve to make changes for the better, I hope you'll all think about small ways that you can be more active. Start slow -- no one is suggesting that you plan on running a marathon. But a 10 minute walk around the block after dinner would be a good place to start.