Active exercise can help fight cancer

Cancer patients should not spare themselves, sport and exercise help with healing
Often, cancer patients are advised to slow down and save more. Is that really the right way to deal with the disease? Physical activity offers significant benefits in recovery, researchers now claimed.

When people get cancer, doctors often suggest that sufferers should make their lives calmer. Sports and exercise are then often neglected. But that could be exactly the wrong way to deal with the disease. Physicians now said that physical activity can help with healing and recovery. Cancer Research UK experts published some advice on how cancer patients can help their recovery through physical activity and exercise.

Physical activity can have a very positive effect on the treatment of cancer. (Image: Photographee.eu/fotolia.com)

Physical activity increases chances of survival in cancer
In the past, cancer patients were often advised to recover slowly and calmly from their condition. Those affected should avoid physical activity and protect their body. This view, however, seems to have been wrong. Cancer patients will not be helped if they take things slow, warned the British experts. Especially relatives and acquaintances would have to support the patients during the treatment and recovery, to continue to be physically active. This increases the chance of survival for those affected, the researchers said. An increasing body of evidence suggests that physical activity helps to overcome the often devastating effects of cancer treatment such as fatigue, depression and heart damage.

In addition, movement reduces the risk that the condition will worsen or break out again. In addition, physical activity can help reduce the number of cancers that kill, say researchers from Cancer Research UK. Current research shows that the risk of recurrence and fatalities in breast cancer patients can be reduced by as much as 40 percent by having people perform recommended physical activity. Still, family and friends would advise someone with cancer to retire rather than encourage sufferers to move more, the experts fear.

Physicians should motivate cancer patients to exercise and exercise
It is widely used to explain to cancer patients that they need to look after themselves, although it is now known that this is not the best way to treat the disease, according to the British physicians. Support from family members and friends can play an invaluable role in helping sufferers find their way back to normal life. Moving is a very important part of our recovery from cancer, stress the scientists. Family and friends should support those affected on their long journey of healing. Prof. Jane Maher, oncologist at Macmillan Cancer Support, said that she always advised her own patients to be physically active, regardless of whether they are still in the middle of treatment or already on the road to recovery. Each person is different, but some exercise or walking can make a big difference to people with cancer, explains the expert.

As healthcare professionals, we play an important role in advising people with cancer, and that's why we need to encourage those affected to move, Maher continued. The fact that exercise helps to treat cancer, is now increasingly recognized. It should by no means be underestimated what role exercise can play in promoting and supporting people with cancer, explain the physicians. The available study results are proof enough and should not be ignored. Moving could save people's lives. And that is precisely the message that we should send to those affected by this terrible disease, emphasizes Prof. Maher.