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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Breast Cancer / October 2006What we can do to reduce recurrence risk (part II?)
In the "Almost there" thread, I mentioned exercise & diet as things we as individuals could control, that could help nudge us toward improved odds of a good long-term post-treatment outcome. By coincidence, this evening I went to a lecture by a woman named Diana Dyer, who's a three-time cancer survivor, including two bouts with BC. (The first cancer was a neuroblastoma in infancy.) She's also a registered dietician. After her second BC, she felt a strong need to take the initiative and apply her professional expertise to avoid another future recurrence. She also had never fully recovered from her first treatment - for example, her immune system was supressed, with her white cell counts consistently below the normal range. She's now 11 years beyond that second BC -- her physician didn't expect her to be around for even 3 years, because the 2nd cancer was so aggressive & extensive. And when (after a time) her blood tests came back with normal white cell counts for the first time in *years*, her doc thought someone in the lab had mixed her blood specimen up with someone else's. They redid it stat, and he came back & asked her to explain *exactly* what she'd been doing. There were side effects, too, good ones: Cholesterol down 50 points, for example. If anyone is interested, she's written a book, "A Dietician's Cancer Story: Information & Inspiration for Recovery & Healing". All profits go to support an endowment at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) that funds research to help define nutritional strategies after diagnosis, either during treatment or recovery, that will help enhance odds for long-term survival. The book has her recommendations about diet, as well as "make it real" ideas on how to shop, what to do when eating out or traveling, how to make it work with a family, how to evaluate alternative therapies & make choices (including food supplements, etc.). She also has a web site, http://www.cancerrd.com/ , with recipes, menus, Q&A, etc. It includes two weeks of menus, and she said everything in that part was tested on (and at least tolerated by!) her two teenage sons. FWIW, Ann T. Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email I read the book. It is very good and practical. I believe that diet and exercise can make a difference. I started a lifestyle change of healthy eating when my cancer recurred 6 1/2 years ago and my doctor is amazed at how well I'm doing. He's a very scientific kind of guy and won't attribute it to the healthy lifestyle, but I believe that, in part, that's why I'm still around. I still have bc, it won't seem to go away, but it hasn't gotten to the point of affecting my daily activities except for the constant chemo treatments, scans, etc. I can't seem to get into the excercise thing, however. Maybe if I did that, the cancer would go away??? Michelle > In the "Almost there" thread, I mentioned exercise & diet as things we as > individuals could control, that could help nudge us toward improved odds [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > Ann T. > Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email Hi, Michelle! >I read the book. It is very good and practical. I believe that diet and >exercise can make a difference. I started a lifestyle change of healthy [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >constant chemo treatments, scans, etc. I can't seem to get into the >excercise thing, however. Maybe if I did that, the cancer would go away??? I don't think there are many cases of such complete remission (assuming your recurrence was metastatic?), but if you're keeping it at bay you're doing *great*. As far as getting into exercise, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it if it were a matter of making myself do it because it's good for me . . . I don't have that kind of will power. What's worked is that, happily enough, I stumbled into something I do for fun that just happens to be exercise. It's even given me the motivation to work at other active things I don't much like (e.g., swimming) because it helps my rowing, and to take on new-to-me active things I do like (e.g., kayaking) because I now have the strength and confidence to jump in & do them. So I don't actually think of rowing as "exercise", I think of it as "fun". Before I found rowing, I'd started trying to be more active, just to regain strength after treatment. It helped to sign up for actual classes, because then it was like an appointment that I felt obligated to show up for. Those activities that I liked (weight training, yoga) I would then keep doing more on my own, and those that I didn't enjoy just dropped by the wayside. Hope you can find something active that you love -- I'm having such a good time rowing, I wish everyone here could find something that would feel as good. Take care, Ann T. Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email Hi Ann, It's great that you found something you like so much. I hope I will find something I have a passion for, also. I guess I have to start by trying all sorts of things and see what sticks. If I remember correctly, you're in the East Lansing area. I went to MSU in the mid 70's. Some of my best years were spent there. I'm trying to think of what bodies of water are there. Where do you do your rowing? Michelle > Hi, Michelle! > [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > Ann T. > Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email Hi, Michelle, >. If I remember correctly, you're in the East Lansing area. I went to MSU >in the mid 70's. Some of my best years were spent there. I'm trying to >think of what bodies of water are there. Where do you do your rowing? Hey, I went to MSU, too - 1973-78, plus a little part-time temporary grad school stint in the early 80s! Then I worked from MSU for 28 years, starting in 1978, and just recently retired. So, I hope some of my best years were spent here, too, or I should've moved long ago <grin>. We row on the Grand River in Lansing, near one of the old Oldsmobile plants (and some Lansing Board of Water & Light -- I think that's who they belong to -- cooling towers), and down past the fancy houses west of there. If you remember anything about Lansing landmarks: It's in a park between Martin Luther King Drive (used to be Logan Street when you were here, I think) and Waverly Road, on the North side of the river. Michigan State Varsity has also had some competitions on Lake Ovid, in Sleepy Hollow State Park, North and a little East of the city, but they row practices in the same park we do. It was a club sport when you & I were at MSU, rowing out of that same park. We (my BC survivors team) had a exhibition race just today, as part of an MSU-sponsored race, in the pouring cold rain & wind. But my boat took more than 30 seconds off its time compared with a practice run on Thursday night (15 minutes 5 seconds today, vs. 15:39 on Thursday), so I'm happy. Remains to be seen whether we were faster than any of the (slower of the) college boats from Michigan Tech, Northern, U of M, Eastern, MSU, Grand Valley . . . . here's hoping. Nice to "meet" a former fellow Spartan! Ann T. Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email Ann, It's great to hear you're having so much fun with your rowing. Doesn't the Grand River run through East Lansing? Besides living in the dorm (East Akers), I lived in a large apt. complex that may have been called the Grand River Apts. I remember it was very near campus on Waters Edge St. right by a bridge that went over a river. It's been so long, my brain just won't go there, but it still remembers a lot of laughs (and way too much partying!!!). Michelle > Hi, Michelle, > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > Ann T. > Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email |
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