Before treatment
Exercise prepares one’s body to better deal with the negative physiological effects. This is commonly known as “pre-hab.”
During treatment
Exercise helps improve your physiological and psychological well-being, as well as being extremely beneficial for weight loss and management. Maintaining a healthy weight throughout treatment substantially improves the bodies ability to deal with side effects.
| Side effects of treatment | Benefits of exercise |
|---|---|
| Fatigue | Improves energy |
| Depression | Improves mood |
| Loss of muscle / strength | Improves strength / reverses effects of muscle loss |
| Low immune system | Increases natural killer cells |
| Swelling | Reduces swelling |
| Self esteem | Improves self esteem |
| Neuropathy | Lessens effects by improving efficiency of nerves |
| Lymphodeoma | Encourages lymphatic drainage |
| Lack of range of motion | Improves range of motion in joints and muscles |
After treatment
- Decreases risk of re-occurrence and mortality.
- Enhances psychological state, whilst offering patients social interaction and a reason to get “out and about”
- Helps deal with side effects of certain treatments, in particular hormone therapy.
- High levels of the unbound form of sex hormones (Testosterone/Oestrogen) can encourage growth of tumours. Exercise helps decrease the levels of the unbound form of these hormones, whilst also increasing Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG).
- Encourages weight-loss: being overweight is directly linked to high levels of Insulin in our blood. In turn this produces hormones IGF1 and IGF1BP (Insulin like Growth factor/ Insulin like Growth Factor Binding Protein) which bind to your blood and increase risk of growth and potential development of other cancers.
Information on WHAT TO DO