Exercise
As Marcia mentions in her My Story one item that has bothered her most during her cancer experience is fatigue. Chemotherapy treatments reduce energy while it combats cancer cells since it also takes a toll on the healthy cells and red blood cells. In an effort to combat this fatigue, Marcia began exercise routines including yoga and walking. Not only did this improve her fitness, but it improved her mental well-being. Thus,
There is a strong mind and body connection and you can help by making small changes.
According to the American Cancer Society research, exercise is not only safe and possible during cancer treatment, but it can improve how well you function physically and your quality of life.
Too much rest can lead to loss of body function, muscle weakness, and reduced range of motion. So today, many cancer care teams are urging their patients to be as physically active as possible during cancer treatment. Many people are learning about the advantages of being physically active after treatment, too. There is strong evidence that an exercise program can also help to improve anxiety, depression, fatigue, quality of life, and physical function.
According to The American Cancer Society Exercise can help in the following ways:
- Keep or improve your physical abilities (how well you can use your body to do things)
- Improve balance, lower risk of falls and broken bones
- Keep muscles from wasting due to inactivity
- Lower the risk of heart disease
- Lessen the risk of osteoporosis (weak bones that are more likely to break)
- Improve blood flow to your legs and lower the risk of blood clots
- Make you less dependent on others for help with normal activities of daily living
- Improve your self-esteem
- Lower the risk of being anxious and depressed
- Lessen nausea
- Improve your ability to keep social contacts
- Lessen symptoms of tiredness (fatigue)
- Help you control your weight
- Improve your quality of life
Given the current COVID 19 situation, exercise has become a bit more challenging due to the inability to go to formal gym classes or to the gym. Most especially if you are undergoing cancer treatment and you must keep your “circle” tight. However, exercise is so important to your well-being both physically and mentally that we hope you will consider some great options like “virtual” options or yoga or fitness classes that you can do online or in the privacy of your own home.
Marcia has recently registered for a few events and causes near and dear to her heart, it is a win-win, she gets to support great causes and to “give back” as well as stay fit.
She is registered for:
- Race Across Maryland
- 2020 DC Wonder Woman Virtual Event
- FacemaskRun
- Relay For Life
These are just a few and there are so many great ways to stay fit and incorporate exercise into your treatment – we encourage you to seek out some of the many options for classes on line and home based work outs so like yoga, Pilates, and more that can help to keep you strong both physically and mentally.
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