Exercise for Cancer Survivors

The American Association for Cancer Research held its annual meeting last week. Not too much that I could see about Follicular Lymphoma; maybe the good stuff is coming in another month or so at the ASCO conference

But I did see an article about one interesting study that was presented at the meeting. The presentation was called "The associations of habitual physical inactivity with cancer outcomes: Evidence from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Data Bank and BioRepositor."

The basic message is simple -- get off your butt if you want to live longer.

The researchers saw that regular physical activity was shown to have a benefit for survivors of a few different types of cancer. But no one really measured physical inactivity and what the implications were.

Patients were given questionnaires asking them about their physical activity for the 10 years before they were diagnosed, and after they were diagnosed. About 17.5% of patients were "habitually inactive" -- no physical activity before or after diagnosis.

Patients who were physically active before and after diagnosis had an overall 40% increase in survival.

It gets interesting when you break things down a little more:

Patients who were active 3 or 4 days a week saw the greatest benefit. Those who were active 1-2 days per week, or 7 days per week, saw a benefit, but not as great as those who were active 3 or 4 days.

The message? Moderation is key. Just like like with ice cream. And scotch.

That's important for cancer patients, I think. If you are planning to run a marathon, great -- I'm cheering for you. But if your physical activity has been slowed down by cancer, or by the side effects of treatment (or by the side effects of the treatment to take care of the side effects of treatment), then a walk around the block might be just fine. Or if that's not possible, some chair aerobics (yes, that's a thing, and it's great for lots of people).

And if you think it's too late to start, then here's some incentive -- the study found that patients who were inactive before their diagnosis, but then became after, had a 25% survival increase.

It's easy to find excuses to not be active, and some of them are legitimate. But most of us can find 30 minutes in the day for a walk (outside, now that the weather is getting warmer). But even three 10 minute walks can be a help.

I have found myself doing this more often. I can usually get to the gym three days a week for at least 30 minutes, but other days, I sit a lot at work. I try to do three 10 minute walks during those days, maybe to get a cup of tea or just do a lap around the building.

(And if I walk fast and carry something in my hands, people think I must be rushing to do something important, which is a nice bonus.)

So find some inspiration. Your spouse or child or friend or pet could use the exercise, too -- drag them along. Tell yourself it will only be 10 minutes. You know you can fit that in somewhere, somehow.