This transcript was extracted from the ‘Physical activity in cancer‘.
Maeve, I’m a physiotherapist, similar to Aileen who was just speaking there based over in Antrim hospital and I also cover Laurel House. So there’s going to be an element of an overlap in my presentation here and what everybody has talked about. So we’ll talk a little bit on appetite fatigue, the treatments, the side effects, a little touch on, you know, the effect it has on your mood.
So but we’ll get through it. So basically I’m here to talk to you about the benefits of exercise. You know, and patients that have either going through cancer or have gone through the cancer journey and for patients here that have family members, you know, you will hopefully take a wee bit of it away as well about just the general benefits of exercise. So physical activity can be defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure.
So in other words, moving your bones and your joints, you know it burns energy, it requires energy and just through general movement that’s what’s known as physical activity. So it refers to all movement so you know during leisure time whether you’re out shopping, you know, out for a night out, visiting friends, you know, transport, going to and getting from places, you know or as part of a person’s work, you know, you could be up on your feet a lot.
So basically that’s just to identify that it’s just trying to keep moving, keep moving. All right and then it can also be in terms of, you know, can be both moderate and vigorous intensity, all right. And both and the reason why we’re talking about how to make it you know relevant to different parts of your life is that it’s been shown that both moderate and vigorous activity, physical activity improves your health and that’s coming from the World Health Organisation. So, the challenges then, so people who are living with cancer can be affected by many physical challenges, all right.
So you have both your physical concerns and the treatments and their side effects. You know, so you know, if you have, you know, the going through surgery, you know, the, the recovery from surgery, you know, you’re going through your treatment options, you know, the, the physical challenges and the side effects that come alongside those and although there are no clear guidelines and recommendations for exercise for people with cancer, anyone affected it’s trying to avoid inactivity to get maximum health benefits. I remember being at a talk with breast surgeons, it was breast oncologists and they talked about, you know, long gone are the days where folks that have went through, are going through cancer and going through cancer treatments take to their bed.
You know, those days, you know and are nursed and care, you know, those days are gone. And it’s all you know, the guidelines and the research shows that being physically active improves you know your outcomes going through cancer. So, just going to run through these, what are the benefits? So you could probably name a few of them already.
I’m just going to try and explain in maybe a wee bit more detail as to how they can help you and maybe help motivate you to be a wee bit more active. So in terms we’ll start, where do we start? So energy the energy and mood kind of can go hand in hand together.
So there has been multiple studies showing that there have been MRI brains done before and after exercise and there’s clear, clear evidence to show that physical activity and exercise improve, boosts the happy hormones, those endorphins, you know, and that has been proven both in scans and just clinically. So it is very, very, very well established now that physical activity has been proven to improve your mood. With that then there is that, you know, that does then that naturally will improve your energy.
So by increasing your physical activity, you know you are, you are, how am I, how will I word this? By getting yourself more physically stronger and more active and more resilient, and a bit fitter then that has also been proven to boost your energy levels. Appetite then just to touch on our dietitians talk, you know it has been the in an ideal world, you’re more active, you’re more you know, you’re doing more exercise, you’re burning more calories, you’re using higher energy expenditure so the hope would be then that it improves your appetite. The other side of that then is, if your appetite is maybe a bit more on the higher side then that by being more active and burning more calories and more energy expenditure then that it would also then balance out and you know improve your appetite. Your heart you know, physical activity, you know it helps you know, the chambers and the muscles of your heart to work more effectively and more efficiently.
And you know as we talk about, I get a lot in my clinics and the wards people say to me, you know going through cancer, right I want to get fitter and when we talk about getting fitter, basically your heart and your lungs work together to pump blood and oxygen around your body and by you improving your physical activity, and you increasing the workload in your heart and lungs, what happens over time is they learn to adapt and that means then that over time, they’re pumping blood and oxygen around your body, your muscles are taking that up and releasing it much more efficiently and over time then that gets to become a more well-oiled machine. All right. So and it’s just starting gradually and starting to build up.
So that’s what we talk about getting fitter, ok. In terms you know of strength, you know if you’re doing physical activity you know you’re going to increase your muscle mass, your muscle bulk, therefore you’ll be able to lift heavier, do heavier work and just overall become that wee bit stronger and a bit more endurance to do activities for a wee bit longer.
Our balance is highly affected by your vision, your inner ear and little sensors around your joints. So as we talk about, you know the beepers on your car, when you’re reversing you know, and the you know, you’re going to hit something and you’re going to fall the beep beep beep beep beep becomes louder. So when you go to fall or you know, if you’re going to trip, you have the little sensors around your joints and your vision to tell you’re brain, oh no hold on, straighten back up or you’re going to fall.
Exercise and balance exercises. Physical activity has been proven to improve your balance, all right and confidence, more and more emerging studies to show that physical activity and exercise, and particularly strength training there’s been a lot of research in strength training to show that it improves people’s confidence. So talked a little bit on this. Sleep, again the goal is that by burning more energy and being more active then your burning energy, you’re hopefully going to be more tired and that will in turn improve the quality of your sleep. In terms of you know your bones and your joints, unfortunately as you get older, you naturally lose muscle mass and changes happen to your joints and then I suppose as a result of patients with cancer, if they’re going to their treatments and maybe having a wee bit more inactive and not moving as much, you’re going to lose a bit of muscle muscle mass.
But our joints love to be loaded. They like to be, you know, that the strength exercises keeps them healthy, it keeps your overall joint health healthy and and it helps with the, you know, the structural integrity of your bones it keeps them nice and dense and strong. Studies, a lot of emerging research suggests it reduces your risk of dementia, reduces your risk of type two diabetes.
As we’ve talked previously about, weight control, helps control your weight and it helps it lessens your cognitive decline. So everything we do has to be guided by research and trials and so this is what we go by; according you know the guidelines developed by the American College of Sports Medicine, supported by the National Centre, National Cancer Institute and British Association for Sport and Exercise Science, that basically it is safe at all stages, exercise is safe at all stages in your cancer journey and the guidelines clearly identify you’re trying to get back to normal activities as soon as possible.
You’re gradually building up, and you’re building up slowly and avoiding being inactive. I feel like such a fraud when I talk about this, because if you put me in front of a good Netflix series, I could be out for a couple of hours easy. So this is the guidelines; they basically say so 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week, or at least 75 minutes of more vigorous intensity per week.
And you’ll see within there then we are trying to incorporate at least two sessions a week of strength training and our balance training, all right. And we’ll just talk a wee bit further, so hopefully at this stage is we’re all sitting there going, hmmm how much exercise do I do over the course of the week? All right. And this is just a wee simple, simple thing to say you know, if you say it’s 30 minutes a day and that could be ten minutes at a time over the course of the day. And and if you start and start with those little ten minute sessions, you will very, very quickly be making up your 150 minutes over the course of the week.
Just a wee example of different types of activity; you know, you could be running, walking, gardening, swimming, you know, sports, stairs, you know, dancing, you know just basically just getting up and keeping moving. So yeah, we just talked a wee bit on this, so we’re trying to incorporate two elements of strength training per week, examples of your exercises and then you’re trying to incorporate balance sessions into the course of your week as well.
So exercise is safe and effective but just some cautions that we would advise for you to take account and some for some patients, a more individualised exercise programme may be more suitable. So just a couple of wee things here just to be a little bit cautious of and you know and as it says here, you may need to contact your GP, your oncologist, your cancer nurse specialist or even the likes of myself if you seek a wee bit more advice.
So if you have any bone problems so if you have quite severe osteoporosis, or if you’ve had any bad traumas or breaks in the past, brain tumours or metastases, peripheral neuropathies, which is the sensation in your feet and in your hands if you have lymphoedema, exercise is recommended in patients with lymphoedema you just might need to get the swelling a little bit more under control and then you proceed with your activity, and if you have any underlying heart or lung problems, you know, you may just want to seek a little bit of advice prior to, you know, starting/increasing your physical activity.
So basically a lot of the guidelines say you just you start slowly, you’re gradually increasing. You know, there is other tips and studies that say do it with company, which is why I think is it still the “bring a buddy” to some of the campaigns and things just to encourage people to, you know, to help people to attend these and get more active?
Some people love diaries and then it says to seek advice if needed. So in terms of getting started then there is obviously there is our charities here today if you want to speak to, you can speak to your cancer nurse specialist, there is what was traditionally known as Move More, there is some parts of the trust it’s still known as Move More, some parts it’s been tweaked a little bit, which is basically initiatives run through the local leisure centres that are specific for cancer patients and they’re led by staff that have their training in oncology and basically you know or reach out through your GP, your local GP’s practice you know or through Macmillan, Cancer Focus you know, there’s many, many different ways for you to to get started.
And just a final note then you know speak with your GP, your oncologist, your cancer nurse specialist, myself, occupational therapist, Aileen’s just away. You know if you feel that you do need a little bit more of a 1 to 1 advice prior to hopefully as of starting today after this talk, increasing your physical activity. And yeah, thank you very much for listening.