Cancer Patients Need Physical Activity - by David Haas

In a discussion by the Advisor Board Company’s Oncology Rounds, a number of studies with cancer patients were analyzed. Regardless of whether patients had a mesothelioma diagnosis, breast cancer, colon cancer or other forms of the illness, it was found that physical activity has a positive impact on patient survival rates and overall health.

Quality of Life Improvements
Many patients facing cancer treatment see dramatic changes in their quality of
life. They may feel depressed, anxious, or have difficulty in seeing hope for the future. Not surprisingly, physical activity can actually help cancer patients cope with the emotional challenges that come with their health condition.
Cancer is an illness that is difficult to navigate. Side effects of the illness can
include decreased stamina, fatigue, pain and malaise. However, physical activity
can actually help with these symptoms. By being active, your body will produce
neurochemicals that help increase energy, improve mood, manage pain, and
improve your overall well-being.
Physical activity also helps because it improves your stamina and strength. For
many patients, one of the most difficult factors is a lack of energy or interest in
normal social activities that were enjoyed in the past. By becoming more active,
confidence about one’s appearance can improve and patient’s can begin to
enjoy previous social outings and hobbies.

Health Outcomes
The most convincing arguments for becoming more physically active come from the improved outcomes for cancer patients. Study after study has found that individuals who exercise help their health in many ways. Not only does strength and stamina improve, but cardiovascular health improves and better weight control is gained as well. The risk for developing diabetes declines as well.
Other studies have shown that the benefits of exercise go beyond immediate health improvements. Patients diagnosed with breast cancer have shown better survival rates when they exercise regularly. Additionally, the recurrence of cancer decreases for individuals who continue to exercise even when in remission.

Beginning Exercise
Rigorous exercise is not necessary to see health benefits. Even regular stretching can improve stamina, strength, and flexibility. If you are not currently active, talk to your doctor and find out what kinds of exercise you can safely engage in before you start. They may recommend that you work with a physical therapist to find the best activities for your needs.
Easy exercises include water aerobics, walking, and yoga. If you already are physically active, you may enjoy hiking, biking, or spinning classes. As long as your doctor approves and you are not injured, you should find a way to be active every day. Some days, it may simply be taking the stairs or parking farther away when you go to the store.
It used to be that when a patient was diagnosed with cancer, their doctor would recommend rest and relaxation. Today, doctors are much more likely to encourage you to get up, be active, and continue to do the things you enjoy. Not only will it help keep your mood up, but it will maintain your quality of life and improve your overall health now in and in the future.

David Haas (davdhaas@gmail.com)

New routine: Swimming + steam room + Yoga

Have you ever been bored by your workout routine?

I've been these past weeks...

So, this morning, I decided to change my usual 'cardio + weight + stretching' routine to:

Half hour (to 45 minutes) of swimming for cardio and muscles' warm-up, 10 to 15 minutes in the steam room to prepare articulations and muscles to stretching in yoga asanas, and 45 minutes to one hour of an Asthanga-Vinyasa Yoga routine.

- Am usually swimming 15 to 20 laps(50m) of freestyle, a few laps of breast strokes and back strokes to cool down and then do some aquagym movements with hand's paddles to increase the water pressure.

- The steam room's heat doesn't provide a warm-up (swimming does) but improves flexibility and physical strength, even after leaving the steam room for the yoga practice. Standing, bending over stretching the hamstrings, twisting the waist, prepares the body for yoga.

- My yoga routine includes 3 to 5 rounds of Salutation to the Sun, 10 to 12 standing poses, back bends, forward bends, inversions, Pranayama, Shavasana.

Tip: This combination of warm up in the pool and heat in the steam room is one of the best preparartion for a yoga session I've ever experienced.

I felt fully energized after this morning exercise session; a good break in my routine, to be added to my weekly program...

On the benefits of raw egg yolks...

My grand-father was born in 1912. He has started working in the fields as a peasant at the age of 7. He is gonna reach 99 this year on March 3rd. He has been eating all his life raw egg yolks straight from the chickens' butt, vegetables and legumes from his gardens, meats bought from or given by farmers, honey and royal jelly straight from the hives. We are talking more than 9 decades here; longevity...

When surfing the internet and reading the latest 'scientific' discoveries about nutrition, it seems to me that the food scientists from the city are just rediscovering what people from the countryside have known from generations and generations. We just have lost this knowledge on our way to the cities where years after years we've been putting more and more easy-to-eat processed foods, devoid of their nutrients, in our malnurished bodies. Look where a non-meaningful superficial life based on over-advertised material happiness has led us: obesity, diseases caused by food chemicals, mal-nutrition, raping of Mother Earth's resources in the name of progress...

And now science tells us that it is good to eat whole food. Well, do we really need to study 4 to 8 years post highschool diploma to know what some people have always known for centuries just by living and working in communion and harmony with Mother Nature and listening to their natural instinct about how to feed themselves?

Tip: I do swallow the egg yolk topped by some drops of lemon juice from the half egg shell straight down the throat.

A Google search will provide you with the different (and often contradictory) articles about the tremendous helth tonic benefits of raw egg yolks and the many ways of checking out the freshness of the egg.

Welcome to Healthy Body Tips !!!

"Mens sana in corpore sano." - Juvenal (Roman poet, late 1st-early 2nd century AD). ("A healthy mind in a healthy body.")

"May your food be your medicine, may your medicine be your food." - Hippocrate (Greek physician, 460BC-370BC)

"A good physician first find out the cause of the illness, and having found that, he first tries to cure it by food. Only when food fails does he prescribe medication." - Dr Sun Ssu-mo (Taoist doctor, 590-692), 'Precious Recipes (Chen-Chin-Fang)'.

Trophology, the science of food combining, isn't taught in schools; neither are yoga asanas and pranayama (breathing techniques).

Learning to combine your food leads to an easy digestion, proper cholesterol levels and a balance metabolism. Streching your body in yoga asanas makes your body and immune system stronger, your body and mind more flexible, opens your chackras and releases your energies (kundalini). Knowing how to breathe (stomach breathing) releases your stress.

Weight lifting (it can be simply lifting your body) makes you stronger and fitter, increases your energy level, helps lose fat and builds stronger bones.

Cardiovascular exercises (cardio) increase blood circulation in your body and your metabolism, improve your hearth condition, release 'feel good' hormones easing symptoms of depression and fatigue, and help you lose fat.

Swimming is soft on the muscles and, if you do a variety of strokes, is a total body workout. It also builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness. I also noticed that swimming, with the help of the water element, heals your body from the aches and stresses of weight/body lifting and cardio.

In my preparation to become an ACE Personal Trainer, I have been combining all these disciplines in my daily training for the last six months of 2010, along with some anatomy & nutrition studies, and couldn't help noticing the benefits of this training along the way.

I would like to share with you in this blog some of the knowledge acquired during my different training sessions, along with some summaries of my readings.

I hope this knowledge will help you on your path to a healthier body and mind...

Sincerely
Richard Palumbo