This is a nice short article which underlines the benefits of aerobic training to stay healthy and help prevent cancer. The benefits of rowing as arguably the greatest form of exercise is still pretty unknown to the general public and many doctors and writers... In this article dragon boat paddlers are wrongfully called rowers. This is a good mistake because even though they did not mean the true form of rowing, the article came up on the rowing website www.row2k.com. In the end rowing is so superior to any other form of aerobic exercise because of of its full body motion and ZERO impact movement. Ok, I am getting off my rowing high horse, enjoy the article. XENO over and out.
Cancer prevention through exercise
By Margaret Evans
Sep 26 2006
Fourteen years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was caught in its early stages and treated with surgery, chemo, and radiation. I spun through the fear-driven loop of ‘what if…’, ‘why me…’, ‘how come…’ But I got on with practical living and adopted a holistic recovery approach by staying fit. I’ve always ridden horses but that’s not aerobic from a cardiovascular point of view, except for the horse. So, to be fit to ride and to use fitness to distance myself from cancer, I took up jogging and resumed with more focus a regimen of yoga exercises.
I had a stubborn belief that exercise and some kind of fitness regimen would be helpful for recovery and staying healthy. Turns out, I wasn’t too far off track in linking exercise and cancer recovery. Current science is pointing toward fitness as a means to keeping breast cancer at bay.
Donald McKenzie, a professor and cancer researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine, specializes in sports medicine and exercise. His pioneering research into lymphedema, the accumulation of upper body fluids in people who have had their lymph nodes removed or radiated as part of cancer treatment, led him to theorize in 1996 that strenuous, upper body exercise like rowing might alleviate the build up of fluids and other complications from lung diseases. His theory led to the launch of the celebrated Dragon Boat races, the rowers all breast cancer survivors.
His theory begged answers to two tantalizing questions: Could exercise help prevent the onset of breast cancer and could exercise help prevent a recurrence of the disease? According to many recent studies across Canada, the results are leaning toward a very encouraging yes.
“There have been some good studies done,” said Dr. McKenzie. “The vast majority show that aerobic exercise has benefits to help prevent the onset of cancer with as much as a 30-40 per cent reduction in risk. In terms of primary prevention (to prevent breast cancer) the results are clear. For secondary prevention (to prevent recurrence of breast cancer) exercise makes sense.”
Why?
Across the country there have been over 200 studies in recent years focused on the link between cancer and exercise. A few facts are emerging. Regular aerobic exercise changes hormones, reduces obesity, and lowers fat levels. The current focus is gauging what exercise-induced changes occur to the metabolic system, insulin levels, and key hormones like estrogen and androgen.
Breast cancer is a hormone-influenced disease. Estrogen and androgen levels rise in post-menopausal women. Hormones are produced in body fat and if women have significantly increased their weight by over 12 kg since age 18, they could increase their exposure to risk by perhaps 40 per cent. But as exercise burns body fat it lowers hormone levels, therefore lowering the risk.
“It is generic exercise,” said Dr. McKenzie. “Women need to do something aerobic like walking or jogging.”
How long should each session be? How many times a week? To what intensity? Gym work? Distance running? Power walking? Cross-over sports? Interval training? An ongoing study at the University of Alberta involves 330 cancer-free women between 50 and 74 years of age who have been put on an intensive five-day-week exercise program for the first time in their lives. Their blood and body fat levels will be scanned and scrutinized to find links between exercise-induced changes and body chemistry. Results are expected this fall.
Exercise not only combats breast cancer but it also appears to be valuable for other forms of cancer including colon, lung, endometrial and possibly prostate cancer.
Grabbing those running shoes has taken on a whole new fitness meaning.
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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