One way many cancers grow is by oxygen starvation, the tumor gains a sort of cloaking device that protects it from the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs and radiation, which are designed to seek out well-oxygenated tissue.
Researchers have long tested various approaches to improving blood flow to the tumor in the hopes of restoring potency to treatments. Not much has shown promise.
Until researchers investigated exercise.
Researchers led by Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) scientists studied the impact of exercise in models of breast cancer in mice. They found that exercise stimulated significant improvements in the number and function of blood vessels around the tumors, improving oxygen flow to the cancer site. When treated with chemotherapy, the tumors shrank markedly better than they did in sedentary animals.
The researchers used two different models of breast cancer cells and implanted them in mice, then randomly assigned the animals to either exercise (running on a wheel), remaining sedentary.
Among the animals that exercised, tumor growth was significantly slower than growth in the sedentary mice, and tumor cell death was 1.5 times higher. The density of small blood vessels was approximately 60 percent higher in exercised mice compared to the controls, and oxygen transport improved, leading to less oxygen starvation of the cancer tissue. The vasculature in the tumors also looked and behaved more normally.
Based on the observed effects of exercise on tumor physiology, the researchers next tested whether exercise would improve the efficacy of the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide.
Animals were randomized to one of four groups:
- sedentary,
- exercise alone,
- cyclophosphamide alone,
- or exercise in combination with cyclophosphamide.
The rate of tumor growth was significantly slower in mice treated with exercise and cyclophosphamide compared to all other groups. Tumor growth was also delayed in both the exercise alone and cyclophosphamide alone groups, but there was no difference in tumor growth rate between those two groups, suggesting that exercise showed similar effect as chemotherapy in this experiment.
-JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2015
Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec’s comments on “Exercise equal to chemotherapy in breast cancer”:
Let us state CLEARLY what this research found: Exercise showed similar effects in decreasing tumor growth as compared to chemotherapy!
Let us restate this just incase you still need clarification: You have two choices to get the similar results in stopping cancer? Door number one is you exercise multiple times per day. Door number two is you go for chemotherapy treatments. Which door do you choose?
Remember God designed the body to stay healthy when you live 7 Basic Steps to Total Health each and every day of your life.
What type of exercise should you be doing multiple times per day?
- Celllular exercise which moves lymphatic fluid. This is done on a rebounder 5 minutes of light health bounce done each hour.
- Cardiovascular exercise which moves blood. This can be as simple as going up and down the stair for one minute 1-3 times per day.
Life is motion and this motion helps get oxygen to cells to inhibit cancer growth. Do not wait until you get cancer. Start exercising today and for the rest of your life.
