Jogging
Exercise may be the last thing on your mind when you’re having cancer treatment that leaves you feeling exhausted, but according to research from the University of Hong Kong, it’s key to recovering in terms of physical fitness and psychological wellbeing.
Reviewing data from 34 clinical trials involving adult cancer patients that looked at how much or little physical activity they undertook, the researchers assessed the impact which exercise had on their overall health and wellbeing. Patients in the studies, who had an average age of 55, had a variety of cancers, including prostate, breast, gynaecological, colorectal and lung. The trials looked at aerobic, resistance or strength-training exercises and the average length of time spent on this kind of activity was nine weeks.
Breast cancer patients showed significant improvements in health, such as better blood sugar control, BMI and body weight, and also reported fewer problems with post-treatment symptoms such as fatigue, depression and overall lower quality of life. Other cancer patients derived similar benefits from exercise, including improved BMI, body weight, depression and quality of life. The type of exercise affected the outcome in different ways – aerobic exercise combined with resistance training appeared to have the greatest benefit for breast cancer patients, compared with doing aerobic exercise alone, for example.