Vital Signs: exercise is a powerful tool - even for cancer
Macmillan Cancer Support has issued a bold statement saying physical activity should be "prescribed" by doctors after "hard evidence" showed it can significantly help recovery from cancer, may help prevent the cancer from returning, and also prevent other long-term illnesses.
The research also showed that exercise can reduce the risk of dying from cancer and minimise the side-effects of treatment. They suggest that all patients receiving cancer treatment should do two-and-a-half hours of exercise every week. This is quite remarkably contrary to the more traditional advice to rest and take things easy.
GPs will concur with this wholeheartedly. Exercise is one of the most powerful weapons in their armoury of preventative medicine. It can reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol, keep diabetes at bay, help prevent heart disease and osteoporosis and improve depression, not to mention its positive effects on metabolism and weight management.
It's the thing I nag my patients about most, and it's definitely the one thing they are worst at doing.
Perhaps if cancer patients were more aware of the actual figures it would encourage them to see exercise as an important adjunct to the high-tech treatments they will also be receiving. Previous research shows that exercising to the recommended levels can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring by 40 per cent, and for prostate cancer the risk of dying from the disease is reduced by up to 30 per cent.
And it's not just cancer. Only last year research into Alzheimer's suggested that physical activity promotes changes in the brain that may protect high-risk individuals against cognitive decline.
It also suggests that in individuals at genetic risk of Alzheimer's the benefits of exercise may be even greater than for those without genetic risk.
Does this mean we should all be rushing off to have our genes tested for Alzheimer's? No, because the benefits of exercise are so all-encompassing and undisputed that we should all be doing it anyway.
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