One major purpose of my blog is to promote exercise as a way to improve life during chemotherapy or any other time. I’ve used my experience as proof that exercise can make a dramatic difference in how one feels during chemo. However, my experience alone is not scientific proof that exercise makes a difference. Fortunately, scientific (controlled) studies have been conducted and the results are just mind blowing.
One controlled study was done with sixty-three patients who were scheduled to receive HIGH-DOSE chemotherapy. One week before starting chemotherapy, patients were evaluated with resting and stress electrocardiograms and echocardiograms. Furthermore, their psychologic status was evaluated with a special test. One patient was excluded from the study after discovering they had cardiac disease. The remaining patients were split into two groups: 29 patients in an exercise group and 33 patients in a non-exercise group.
The exercise group used a bed ergometer to “bike” in bed for 30 minutes a day with an intensity level high enough to achieve at least 50 percent of their cardiac reserve. The exercise group was able to train 82 percent of the time. Both groups were again tested after completion of chemotherapy.
At the beginning of the study, there were no differences in characteristics between the two groups. During and after chemotherapy, the exercise group showed significant improvement in obsessive-compulsive traits, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity and phobic anxieties. They also showed a reduction in psychological stress compared with the non-exercise group. During HIGH-DOSE chemotherapy, patients in the exercise group did not have any change in fatigue level, while the non-exercise group showed a significant increase in fatigue. Read the previous sentence over and over again and try to appreciate the significance of it.
There is no drug, no food, and no other thing on this planet that would have that much positive impact on high-dose chemo patients than exercise. To me this is so profound that all cancer patients who don’t have some significant risk associated with exercise, such as cardiac disease, should be strongly encouraged to exercise. But much of the medical industry has not put this into practice. And there’s more profound news. In upcoming posts I will share with you studies that show exercise not only improves physical and psychological fitness during chemotherapy, it improves one’s chances of survival over cancer after chemotherapy.
I search the internet for proof on the benefits of exercise for caner patients. I’m very careful about which sources I use. The best source is actual scientific papers that have been published. I also have confidence in internet articles published by well know, reputable organizations, such as the American Cancer Society. Here is a link to the paper reporting on the study mentioned above. Hopefully this works.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/75503426/PDFSTART
So there you go – scientific proof that exercise does have a dramatic difference improving the lives of high-dose chemotherapy patients. Imagine what exercise can do for you, regardless if you are a chemo patient or not. When you contemplate exercise, don’t look at it as a way to get into shape, loose weight, or buff up. Look at it as a way to greatly improve your physical and psychological well being. It should be just as important as the air you breathe.
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Hi Chemo Man
ReplyDeleteI have ust started chemo after surgery for Primary Peritoneal Cancer. I entered a marathon before knowing I had cancer and my training starts on the day I am allowed to start running again (6 weeks after surgery) so this article has been quite positive. I only hope that I will be able to do most of the training while on chemo.
Hey Tasgirl,
ReplyDeleteIt’s music to my ears to hear what you plan to do. What marathon are you planning to run? Have you run marathons before? You have some very challenging times ahead, but this is also the time to really shine! Please keep me up to date on your progress.
One runner to another.
Hi Chemo Man
ReplyDeleteI have entered the Paris Marathon - I have done it 9 times before VERY slow and this was going to be my last so am pretty determined to see it through. The challenges ahead are a daunting but hopefully I will be able to manage.
On another note I believe it was due to my fitness that I was able to get over the operation pretty quick so hopefully fitness will also see me through chemo!
Tasgirl
Hi Tasgirl,
ReplyDeleteThere is some detailed information about my experience with marathon training during chemo that I have not yet shared on my blog. I’ve been meaning to do it for some time, but quite honestly I didn’t really expect that anyone in a similar situation would find my blog. I guess I better get it in gear. Not everyone is going to have the same experience that I had, we are all different. But hopefully this information helps.
Physically, running during chemotherapy was more challenging then normal times, but psychologically it was much easier. The key thing is the big picture. My day overall went much better because of the training. But that’s old news in my blog. What I haven’t talked about is what running was like during the 5 or 6 days just after chemo. After my first and second treatment and after the anxiety of plunging into the unknown was gone, I figured out what I was capable of doing and worked into a routine. My chemo treatments were every three weeks on a Wednesday morning. I would get up early that morning to run at least a few miles. That would prepare me psychologically for the day. I would then take Thursday as a rest day, and start running on Fridays, somewhere between 6 and 8 miles.
My legs would get kind of sore and feel real heavy, like lead weights were attached to my ankles. At first I blamed this on my slower pace requiring different muscles. Because of anemia I had to slow down my pace. I even reported in my blog about the slower pace and new muscles. I guess I didn’t want to accept that the chemo was affecting me in ways other than anemia and hair loss. Later I concluded that the heavy leg feeling was some kind of side effect of the chemo.
For about 5 or 6 days after a chemo treatment I would have this heavy leg feeling that would make it a struggle to run, but not enough to stop me. I also would gain about 6 lbs in water weight. Then on about day 5 or 6, I would go out for a run and my legs would feel amazingly light. I felt I had wings when I was running. It would be that way until my next chemo treatment. The water weight would also drop off on that day – a lot of trips to the bathroom. This cycle of heavy legs to wings would happen like clockwork for all chemo treatments.
Hopefully this helps. Please keep me up to date on your training.
Chemo-Man
Hi Chemo Man
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sharing your experiences with training and chemo treatments. My treatments are every week on a Monday which is good as I usually do my long run on Sundays so hoping that come every Sunday I am recovered enough to cope. I have noticed that my legs are extra heavy as well but thought this was due to the fact that I have not done much since my operation. I tried to do a 15k this morning being the first time I was supposed to be running but only managed 9k which I thought was okay considering I haven't done much for 6 weeks.
Will keep you filled in on how the training is coming along.
Thanks Tasgirl