Fight Breast Cancer with Exercise and Healthy Diet

Fight Breast Cancer with Exercise and Healthy Diet Plans

Newly diagnosed cancer patients should be told to diet and exercise, amid mounting evidence that shedding the pounds is the best way to fight the disease, global experts have advised.

A daily brisk walk of just 25 minutes was found to almost halve mortality among breast cancer sufferers, while a waistline larger than 35 inches increased death rates by one third. Results from a slew of trials showed powerful and groundbreaking evidence of the benefits of a slim waistline, with weight loss and exercise helping even those with advanced cancer.

Experts said losing 5 percent of body weight – which could mean as little as ten pounds – could lead to a 20 percent increase in breast cancer survival. Obesity is linked to more than 10 types of the disease, including breast, bowel and ovarian cancer.

After treatment, weight loss is the most powerful thing you can do. It’s the next best pill to treatment and it’s free and has no side effects. Every woman at risk or diagnosed with breast cancer should be counseled about weight loss and weight management, and about the role of exercise. Diet and exercise can have a profound and powerful effect.

Yale research tracking almost 5,000 breast cancer sufferers found that three hours brisk walking a week was linked to a 46 percent fall in mortality. Even when women took up such regimes after decades of sedentary living, death rates fell by as much as 33 percent.

Additional research on more than 4,000 breast cancer sufferers, involving Stanford and Harvard universities found that women carrying excess fat on the waistline had mortality rates one third higher. The 10 year study found that having too much fat around the stomach – meaning a waistline of more than 35 inches – was enough to increase death rates by 31 percent. The study determined that overweight and obese women only needed to lose 5 percent of their body weight to boost survival odds.

A modest amount of weight loss from healthy diet plans can really have great, beneficial health benefits. Another Yale study of 221 women with breast cancer found that achieving 6 percent weight loss on average resulted in a 5 percent decrease in a signal protein, vascular endothelial growth factor, which is known to fuel cancer.

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we encourage our patients to consider the role of exercise and weight loss in their long term health. You’ll not only look better and feel better, but there’s a good chance it will help you live longer.

Keri Sutton - RN, MSN, ANP-C, AGPCNP-BC

Keri is a Nurse Practitioner and founder at Kare Health & Wellness. Keri's pursuit of personal answers to her own health issues landed her in the top of Functional Medicine. As she utilized functional Medicine to get her own health and life back, she made it her life's work to bring this empowering form of healthcare to as many people as she can.

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Our mission is to create a safe environment for our patients to share their story and be empowered to take control of their health.  We constantly challenge patients to think differently about their health. We never find contentment in simply being disease free. We want to help patients optimize their vitality of life so that they can strive for things that they thought were unattainable.

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