Regular Exercise Recommended For Survivors Of Cancer

National Cancer Survivors Day is Sunday, June 4. More than 18 million people in the US are living with a history of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Exercise is recommended for survivors before, during and after cancer treatment. Mimi Schnier is an Ovarian Cancer survivor who meets up with a group of cancer survivors every week to walk and talk. “I’m out and I'm just being normal. I don't have to think about my disease. I don't have to think about my next treatment,” Schnier says. She was diagnosed nine years ago and is currently in treatment for her fifth recurrence. She says walking helps in many ways. “Sometimes we do talk about the disease and that's okay too, because now we're sharing information,” she says.

The walking group is just one of several programs offered by the Nancy Marx Cancer Wellness Center. “For cancer survivors, it's really important to walk every day,” says Susan Stein, a cancer wellness social worker. “Research shows that the direct impact that physical exercise has on your mental and physical health, reducing anxiety and depression, reducing side effects from treatment,” she says.

The American Cancer Society recommends survivors avoid inactivity and return to normal activities as soon as possible after diagnosis and treatment, take part in regular physical activity, start slowly, and build up over time.

“It just gets you up and out. When you go through a diagnosis and a treatment and a lot of other things in your life, you don't always have control. So, it's just something that we can do for ourselves,” says Pamela Goldstein, who was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer in 2017. She didn’t exercise during her initial treatment but recommends it.

“Just one step at a time. It sounds so cliche, but it's the, the smallest thing. I mean, even to come here and walk for a half an hour, you know, you make a connection,” she says.

The American Cancer Society recommends survivors also include resistance training and stretching exercises at least two days a week.