Third Article...Food & Exercise News

Public Archive
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Last one – it is interesting to me because it doesn’t say we should, but we must and it must be in combination…

Diet and Exercise Key to Surviving Breast Cancer, Regardless of Obesity
Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and exercise moderately can reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by half, regardless of their weight, suggests a new longitudinal study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Previous studies have looked at the impact of diet or physical activity on breast cancer survival, with mixed results. This study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the first to look at a combination of both in breast cancer.
“We demonstrate in this study of breast cancer survivors that even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks briskly for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death from her disease goes down by 50 percent,” said the paper’s first author, John Pierce, Ph.D., director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. “The key is that you must do both.”

The study looked at 1,490 women aged 70 years and younger (average 50 years) with early stage breast cancer who were randomly assigned to the non-intensive dietary arm of the ongoing Women’s Health Eating and Living (WHEL) study. The WHEL study is a multi-center study, based at UCSD, investigating the effect of a plant-based diet on additional breast cancer events.

The women in the study were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer between 1991 and 2000 and had completed their primary therapy prior to enrollment. Dietary pattern and physical activity were assessed at enrollment and the women were followed for between five and 11 years.

The researchers found that only 16 percent of women who were obese were both physically active and had a healthy diet, compared to 30 percent in the rest of the study population. Those who were both physically active and had a healthy diet were much more likely to survive through the follow-up period than the rest of the study group. The mortality rate was 7 percent, approximately half of that seen for the rest of the study population.

“Of particular importance is that this halving of risk was seen in women who were not obese as well as in those who were obese,” said co-author Cheryl Rock, Ph.D., R.D., of the Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program. “Also, the effect was not seen in women who practiced only one of the lifestyle patterns – high vegetable and fruit intake, or physical activity.”

Because of the strength of the findings from this longitudinal (observational) study, the researchers want to further investigate the combined protective effect of diet and physical activity on breast cancer survival in an interventional study in which they will change the diet and level of physical activity in breast cancer survivors.

SOURCES:
Journal of Clinical Oncology, June 10, 2007
University of California, San Diego

Emily
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Hi Emily

Thank you for sharing this article with us. It does seem to make perfect sense, not just to prevent recurrence of BC but for other health problems too. It suggests a synergy between diet and exercise and the bit I like is that even if overweight, exercise and good diet can be beneficial.

Cathy
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thanks cath
I think so too…like there is hope!
its nice to have numbers too…6x a week for 30 minutes
i am gointgto start wearing a pedometer
I bet I do that just around the house…

Emily
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Hi Emily,
thanks for all the info you are putting out - I find it fascinating and love to be proactive in my recovery. My normal exercise and diet regime I had already been looking at and tweaking round the edges, will now also revisit the green tea and the red grape juice.
Perhaps you ought to start serving it in the Dew Drop Inn!!!

Magsi

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Hi Emily

My Mum is 94 and always eats fruit & veg (chicken but nothing with 4 legs as she puts it) and has always had a dog which took her for walks (yes I did mean it that way round) every day come rain or shine on the golf course near our home (quite hilly in parts). I am sure this is what has kept her still very fit & well mentally & physically. She still lives on her own (my brother is in the flat above hers - so looks in each day) goes to concerts and films and can do crosswords faster than most of the family. She does walk with a stick now but only because statistically a fall is the worst scenario for the elderly. I only hope I have her genes.

Love Jo xx

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Thanks for that Emily, it’s always reassuring to see that we can do a lot for ourselves to try to prevent a recurrence.

I’m sitting at my desk at work eating my second piece of fruit of the day (always used to bring one piece to work before; now I bring three) and tonight I will go out running. Even when I don’t feel like it (which is most of the time these days! My legs feel like lead a lot of the time) I do it anyway as I feel like I am literally running for my life.

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well, you are both better than I at the exercise part.
not hard to do the vegetables and fruit…
the exercise is much harder for me
but need to.
so am now wearing a pedometer to see who much exercise I get round the house doing sweeping, stairs, etc.
and will add to that as is needed
watched a show the other night where they were saying that skipping a rope is a cardio workout and can be done in half the time as reg workout…which would be nice but am somewhat leary of anything too easy…

once chemo fog is over am thinking bout walking in a mall (flat…we live rural with no streets near the house) or driving myself to college track field. something wrong bout driving to walk but not a perfect world is it? somehow need to incorporate it bck into my life. its been a few years, but used to walk 2 miles a day…so need to get back

glad you liked the articles…I was hesitant to post them but can post more…

Emily
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Hi everyone, I am a new comer to the site and very interested in the all round benefits of “healthy living”. I was diagnosed 2 weeks ago and still coming to terms with that but a positive thing to focus on is looking at what I’m eating and doing. Many thanks
Sharon x

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Hey Sharon

Sorry to hear you’ve been diagnosed but I can tell you as someone who’s half way through treatment that really building myself up, relaxing as much as possible and getting excercise in the first month before my surgery set me up for a fast recovery. I’m now doing chemo and not suffereing yet either so do keep that focus on looking after yourself, I’m sure it helps in the long run as well as the short term.

Good luck.

Angie

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bumping up

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Thanks, Emily, i hadn’t seen your post before today, but like you have been posting on a recent thread about diet.

This makes SUCH encouraging reading! You feel that there really is hope that you can gain some control of this disease.

I like it that it says we benefit even if overweight…that’s great news. It takes a lot of pressure off to lose weight quickly. it’s best for it to come off gradually, then it’s more likely to stay off.

however, as I have pointed out today on the other thread, scientist do say now that there is a link between being overweight and developing other types of cancer, like bowel cancer. So, for our general health it is always a good thing to shed those excess pounds. I think it must be easier to excercise anyway, if not carrying around extra weight. less, strain on your heart.

Best wishes to everyone,

Ann x