Proof that Exercise Dramatically Improves Physical and Psychological Status of Cancer Patients during Chemotherapy

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.

Rejuvenated; Thank You!

To the mother of two little kids that commented on my previous post, thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your story. It has rejuvenated my interest and drive to keep my blog going and to take it into a new direction. I’ve been mulling over some ideas for a long time and now its time to put them into action. I’ve been searching the internet and have found some amazing stories (blogs and websites) of other people who have and used running or some other exercise to overcome chemotherapy, cancer, or some other issue in their life. I have also found scientific proof, research studies, that show exercise does improve quality of life during chemotherapy and improves survival rates of cancer patients. So expect some changes to my blog soon.

Port is Out

My surgery went well this morning and my port is out. The surgery took a whole 9 minutes including prep time. It was interesting how it went. They brought me directly from the main lobby into the operating room. I took off my shirt, put on a hair net and got on the operating table with no special gown. They did cover me up in all kinds of blankets and had a special screen over my head so I couldn’t see what was happening. The doc came in, poked, cut and sewed, and I was done in a few minutes. I could feel a sharp pinch from the needle going into my skin when the doc was sewing me up. I told them that after I was done and they said I should have said something early and they would have numbed me up better. Man, sometimes trying to be a tough guy just doesn’t pay off. It feels great to touch my chest and not feel a hard foreign object poking out.

Back to Running

Just this last Monday I finally started running again. I’ve started out with short 3.2 mile runs each morning. The early mornings in Minnesota are now really cold and dark. Yesterday it was 25 degrees when I ran. I have good gear for running in weather like this, so I don’t cold. It’s just a psychological battle to get out of bed early in the morning when it’s cold and dark. That’s the hardest part. After a cup of stiff coffee and donning my running gear it’s easy to get out the door and run.

My running plans have changed. I won’t be running marathons for awhile. Chemotherapy and two marathons in one year were pretty hard on my body and it needs some time to rejuvenate. So I’m going to keep the distances and races no longer than a half marathon. I’ll probably run mostly 5Ks (3.1 miles) and 10Ks (6.2 miles) races. There are 5 and 10K organized races happening all the time and they usually involve some type of fund raising for charity. For training I’m going to focus on building up my speed rather than distance. I also plan to make my training more balanced by doing other exercises like weight lifting, biking and maybe swimming. I’m even toying with the idea of doing a triathlon. A neighbor lady who was an avid runner got into triathlons and she said the more balanced training actually improved her running. Another reason for more balanced conditioning is it better prepares me for other activities I like to do, like snowboarding, backpacking, kayaking and canoeing. So that’s my plans, now it time to execute. Like getting up out of bed on a cold dark morning, the hardest part will be to get started.

Squeaky Clean PET Scan

Today my oncologist went over the results of my PET scan that was done Wednesday. It showed absolutely nothing, it was squeaky clean. My oncologist was so impressed with my progress I get to have my port-a-cath removed next week. The port-a-cath is a catheter that has been surgically implanted in my chest to allow chemo drugs to have direct access to my heart. Every month I have to go to the cancer center to have the port flushed out. Having it removed means less trips to the cancer center. As much as I love the people there, I prefer to be somewhere else. My PET scans and oncologist visits are now going to be 3 months apart rather than 2. About a week before each scan I get a little anxiety. Having that less often will also be nice.

Scanxiety Time

It took about 5 days after the marathon before I could walk normal. Normally I would start running again, but I have a PET scan next week and I don’t want a repeat of what happen in July when my PET scan showed a flare up, which was later determine to be most likely inflammation of scar tissue due to running Grandma’s marathon. I don’t want to go through scanxiety again (neither does my wife) so this time I’m not running at all until after my PET scan.