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Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

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Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#91
post #87

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And you don't need a gym membership or expensive equipment or any training for exercise. Even a tiny amount can make a huge difference. If you're currently doing no exercise, try to walk five minutes at lunch time each day. Just five minutes. And when that's trivial to do, make it 10 minutes. Try to keep increasing this over the year. No rush. Take your time. But try to make it a habit. Even if some days it's back do…

Also, carry a backpack: https://www.goruck.com/pages/what-is-rucking I generally carry a small EDC backpack anyway for convenience and hydration, but having that 10 - 15 lbs on my back also adds a little bit of extra workout to my walks. Sometimes I'll put my backpack inside a bigger backpack with a few gallons of water or a couple 25lb plates added, which starts to feel like moderate intensity squatting or deadlifti…

A backpack, and countless other upgrades, are great ideas. But I want to communicate that none of this stuff is necessary.

We love to make the simplest thing overly ridiculously complicated to the point that people don't even try.

Just start with a walk.

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#92

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Cycling has its own risks as it can reduce bone density if you cycle instead of walking or other forms of exercise.

How much Cycling do you have to do for that to become a credible risk though? I am imaging quite a bit more than a daily commute.

Cycling doesn't directly cause loss of bone mineral density. Ride as much as you like.

The issue is that some people use cycling as their only form of exercise. For bone health you need to mix in other high impact exercises such as running and weightlifting.

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#93
post #51

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Its even simpler. Exercise (specifically, aerobic type) is the main thing you need. A good exercise regime gives you a lot of leeway in the diet aspect especially if you don't overeat (since your caloric burn will be high enough on the regular to not have to deal with issues like too much carbs). It also helps you sleep as you get tired and can fall asleep easier, and reduces stress levels, which is very important in…

You can’t outrun a bad diet. It takes a lot of exercise to burn off excess calories, and virtually no effort to simply not consume them. I understand that health is more than just calories, and you can come to the same conclusion about other bad things like trans fats, alcohol, etc. If someone had to choose only one thing to do for health, a healthy diet is far more important than exercise.

You can't outrun a bad diet, but a bad diet can give you the runs.

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't realize that muscle use helps pump blood. Movement is important for helping circulation.

Yeah but a 15min walk will get you nowhere.

For someone who used to drive everywhere, it may be a "gateway drug" to more walking.

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#95
post #8

It would be nice if we could find what triggers the body's improved condition when doing exercise, and trigger it maximally without having to do hours of repetitive nonsense. It's fine if you like to do it, but a lot of us obviously don't. I wonder how the progress is going in this sphere.

I agree, additionally from the POV that sensory attention is de facto focus-stealing wrt other functionalities. General or anecdotal benefits aside, it typically taxes other systems of attention very heavily.

It's also shortsighted to nail ourselves to the cross of "yep, always gonna be exercise, that's just what it takes" when that potentially isn't necessary, and even worse, may prevent huge steps forward in use of human potential.

Add to this the many cases in which exercise is not feasible or safe...

(GPT mentions the work of Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky but I'm not familiar)

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#96
post #69

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I was walking 10+ miles every day when I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer, which means it was growing pretty much the entire time I was exercising. It’s not just Diet, exercise and sleep (and proper eating). Some of it is just plain luck.

34 year old triathlete here: colon cancer spread from my colon to my lung. That said, I do think continuing to do some amount of exercise during chemo definitely helped me recover, if not just stay sane mentally. I'm about to have surgery to remove part of the lung and tumor and my surgeon/oncology team is making me wear a fitbit for three months to study my recovery.

What did you do for exercise? Do you mind me asking what your chemo was? Was it mutation-specific?

Good luck with the surgery!

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#97
post #70

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But exercise yields more benefit than just cancer prevention. Don't you want to maintain strength and mobility as you age? Sleep better? Build mental and physical resilience? I'll wager that we won't see a substitution for exercise and its benefits. Ever. It's just part of human life, and embracing it is by far the healthiest mindset.

I'm saying, all of these. Why are they "body moving fast" activated?

Biology is complicated. If we start digging for mechanistic underpinnings, we'll uncover thousands of genes, variants, expression levels, metabolic pathways, epigenetic factors, etc etc etc. None of which will result in a cure-all pill or method to replace exercise and all its benefits. Just not gonna happen unfortunately

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#98
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t outrun a bad diet. It takes a lot of exercise to burn off excess calories, and virtually no effort to simply not consume them. I understand that health is more than just calories, and you can come to the same conclusion about other bad things like trans fats, alcohol, etc. If someone had to choose only one thing to do for health, a healthy diet is far more important than exercise.

This is only true to a point. When I was cycling 20 miles 5x per week, I literally couldn't eat enough to avoid losing weight. (This was not a problem, I've never been thin.)

Yes, when I switch into training mode, the fat melts off in short order (I've never accumulated more than 20 pounds of unwanted mass, and when I did it was following a broken leg and 2 years spent largely sedentary)

In the past I've toned my training down due to exhaustion, not from the physical output but from having to constantly be shoving calories down my throat.

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#99
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you can't easily burn off excess calories, a good amount of muscle mass can significantly increase your metabolic rate as well, so there are effects from repeated exercise beyond just calorie consumption.

Citation needed because “significantly”. Studies I have seen in this (not my field) indicate that the effect is measurable, but basically negligible. The ancestor comment saying to do cardio is right. Strength training is also important for health, but for different reasons (motor function, bone density, etc.). The act of strength training also burns some calories, regardless of resultant muscle mass.

Yes, I do have a citation : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2931407/#!po=8....

Every extra kg of muscle is estimated to contribute 21kcal/day to the RMR. If you put on, say, 15kg of muscle over a few years (quite doable if you are very sedentary and have low muscle mass), that's an extra 300kcal/day. Add in 30 mins of biking a day, and say 100 cal from strength training on average, that's a good 600-700 calories per day!

Re: Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients

#100
I am currently lying in hospital after a so far 7 night stay. I am post chemo for Hairy Cell Leukaemia treatment that commenced 17 days ago. I am doing well enough but it's a struggle. ( I previously was successfully treated for the same chronic condition 9 years ago). My normal weight is around 80kg (I'm a 59yo male). I think I got down to 79kg prior to treatment this time - we actively sought exercise in the prior weeks through bushwalking, walking my dog and just general DIY stuff at home. I certainly this chemo campaign a lot fitter than the first time.

Post the first 5 days of chemo this time I dropped a kilo - it's hard to maintain appetite. Managing the fever that got me hospital admission meant that I have to take in a lot of fluid via IV. I reached a quite bloated 83.5kg only 2 days ago. I then shed 1.7kg in 1 day (no vomiting involved) - I'm sure this is pretty hard to achieve through normal gym work. My goal yesterday for today's weigh-in is 81kg. Though my nurse just told me she administered 500ml (so 0.5kg overnight). I'm guessing being down to 81.4kg is more realistic now. I couldn't exercise much yesterday as I was also taking onboard a weekly chemo infusion. Hopefully I'll be able to do some laps of the hospital ward balcony with my trolley as I did two days ago. I definitely exercise in hospital (walking) as much as my capacity allows.

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