Benefits of sport in cancer patients

The benefits of sport They are widely known, they help control or reduce weight, glucose levels or improve heart health, for example. All these benefits, and some others, make prescribing physical exercise not only an example of intervention on a preventive level, but also on a therapeutic level. There are many patients who can obtain positive effects, in terms of taking medication related to a specific pathology. In some cases, exercising can help reduce the dose of antihypertensive or antidepressant drugs, which in itself is a fact to take into account when the doctor thinks about the symptoms. benefits of sport as part of therapy.

• Including an exercise routine in cancer patients is an increasingly widespread practice to improve quality of life, increase survival rate, and reduce recurrences.
• cardiovascular exercises help control possible weight gain and improve physical capacity that is reduced by the disease.
• When toning is included, the muscles are worked, which in most patients decrease, as well as bone mineral density, thereby reducing the risk of falls and fractures.

Among the pathologies that can be found in the lists of "beneficiaries" of being an active person, there is also a pathology that at the outset may seem that it should not be there because it is aggressive, but more and more studies are published on the benefits of sport, since it is part of the "preventive and / or therapeutic battery" of cancer. The risk factors for developing cancer are many and some of them are beyond the scope of individual interventions. There are factors of their own and inherent to the subject on which large interventions cannot be carried out, but there are those in which the attitude and action of the person is decisive.

Obesity-cancer relationship

Very recently, a study carried out by the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona has been published, in which more than 50,000 people participated and in which the relationship between cancer and the risk of developing cancer has been analyzed. The results have been devastating and very worrying, since it has been seen that it increases the risk of cancer and, specifically and more importantly, in women, in whom this risk is multiplied by 12. These data, in addition To certify that obesity is the great scourge of our society, they must make this society aware that something must be done about it and that everything that is in our hands is, or should be, must be carried out.

Exercise-obesity-cancer relationship

Therefore, if our society were to stop being so sedentary, if it were more active, this latest finding from the group of scientists from Barcelona could offer less worrying figures. cardiovascular-type activities as simple as walking 30 minutes every day to choreographed directed activities, sports such as basketball or hockey or are very valid options to control weight gain or reduce Body Mass Index (BMI) figures.

Benefits of sport in disease

Among the types of cancer that have been studied the most in terms of their relationship with sports practice is found not only at the level of prevention but also in the treatment phase. This cancer is the most prevalent among women both nationally and worldwide, with the figures of 27,000 new cases in Spain each year. Although it should be noted that survival rates increase by 1.4% each year.

Once cancer is diagnosed, doing an exercise routine is beneficial on a physical and mental level. Who suffers a pathology such as cancer, not only suffers on a physical level but also on a mental level. You go through a complex situation to accept, and exercise is a way to regain some "security" and face recovery with greater positivism. There are different recommendations depending on the evolutionary stage in which the patient is, but if there is a premise that is repeated in all cases, it is the keep active within individual possibilities, as long as there are no medical contraindications established by the treating professional / team, since there are many benefits of sport in patients with this disease.

Better quality of life with the benefits of sport

You can exercise during the treatment stage always adapting to each moment, in this way you can maintain a certain quality of life and gradually improve. It is recommended to do exercises both of type cardiovascular like toning This is if following a routine that begins with a warm-up phase and ends with a “cool down” phase. cardiovascular exercises will help control possible weight gain and improve physical capacity that is reduced by the disease. On the other hand, when toning is included, the muscles are being worked, which in most patients decreases, as well as bone mineral density, thereby reducing the risk of falls and fractures. Including an exercise routine in cancer patients is becoming a more widespread practice to improve quality of life and increase survival rate and reduce recurrences. Although the ideal would be for the prevalence of cancer to fall and it is this fact that exercise can have a preventive factor, which should be extended even more if possible. Make the population aware that staying active is reducing the risk of developing cancer.