Exercise Heals

As reported by NBC Nightly News, the Journal of the American Medical Association just confirmed what many cancer patients and survivors already knew, that exercise is the best cure for fatigue caused by cancer. 

The meta-analysis included 113 unique studies, covering 11,525 participants. Their results showed that "exercise and psychological interventions and the combination of both reduce cancer-related fatigue during and after cancer treatment... In contrast, pharmaceutical interventions do not improve cancer-related fatigue to the same magnitude."

Exercise heals. Our bodies are built to recover from moderate stressors. When we stress a muscle, we tear tiny muscle fibers, and they grow back stronger. When we challenge our heart and lungs, they recover more easily. When we conquer new challenges and bounce back effectively, we are able to set our sights higher and stretch our boundaries. 

This study is about cancer patients, but it holds true for all of us. If we move our bodies, we feel better, and when we feel better physically, life feels better overall. Simple as that. 

In the words of the doctor interviewed in the story, we "don't need to go run a marathon. This is about getting the public health recommendation of 150 minutes of exercise every week, and you can get that in multiple ways."

It's just a matter of getting our heart rates up for 25 minutes a day or one hour a couple of times a week. Walking, gardening, jogging, yoga, rollerskating, biking, lifting weights, dancing... options are endless. But the point is that using our bodies heals them. 

So what do you say we get out this weekend, and enjoy the fresh air and movement as much as we possibly can... to battle fatigue and depression and to improve sleep, appetite, and energy levels. Why not grab those benefits wherever we can find them?