Exercise to get better
If you already have cancer, the message is: exercise! Until recently, exercise was mainly seen as something that cancer patients can do to improve their quality of life during and after treatment. However, the consensus now is that exercise improves the probability of survival so substantially that it should form a part of every cancer treatment.
Exercise inhibits the growth of existing tumours, enhances the effect of conventional cancer therapy, reduces the side effects of all forms of cancer therapy, improves the prognosis of cancer patients, lowers the likelihood that cancer will return, reduces the risk of dying from can- cer, and improves quality of life during and after treatment (Hojman P, 2018; Idorn M, 2017; Ashcraft KA, 2019).
References
- HojmanP,GehlJ,ChristensenJF,etal.MolecularMechanismsLinkingExercisetoCancerPre- vention and Treatment. Cell Metab. 2018 Jan 9;27(1):10-21. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.09.015. Epub 2017 Oct 19. PMID: 29056514.
- IdornM,ThorStratenP.Exerciseandcancer:from“healthy”to“therapeutic”?CancerImmunol Immunother. 2017 May;66(5):667-671. doi: 10.1007/s00262-017-1985-z. Epub 2017 Mar 21. PMID: 28324125; PMCID: PMC5406418.
- Ashcraft KA, Warner AB, Jones LW, Dewhirst MW. Exercise as Adjunct Therapy in Cancer. Semin Radiat Oncol. 2019 Jan;29(1):16-24. doi: 10.1016/j.semradonc.2018.10.001. PMID: 30573180; PMCID: PMC6656408.
