By Colin E. Champ, MD, CSCS – Radiation Oncologist
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. The old year and all of its problems is behind us and we get the chance to make a new start.
Have you made your resolutions for 2023? Millions of people around the world have made promises to themselves that this year they’ll do better or be better. There are plenty of ways to improve, but none of those will matter if we don’t focus on our health.
In 2022, there were 1,918,030 new cancer cases reported and 609,360 cancer deaths were projected to occur in the United States, including approximately 350 deaths per day from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death.1 With numbers like this, it is likely that each person reading this has been touched by cancer in one way or another in the last 12 months. Either you’ve had your own cancer scare or diagnosis, or someone close to you has. It feels impossible to escape cancer these days. Isn’t there anything we can do to improve our chances of not becoming one of the nearly 2 million new cases yearly?
Making our New Year’s resolutions about our health is one thing we can do to improve our chances. Let’s look at some resolutions that can put us on track to improve our overall health and our chances of escaping a cancer diagnosis.
1. Cut refined sugar and artificial sweeteners
“Sugar feeds cancer.” We have all heard this, yet what exactly do we do with this information? As data continue to accumulate, this question will eventually be answered with certainty. In fact, new data linking breast cancer and sugar increases our concern over diet’s effect – and the modern, food pyramid-driven diet – on cancer outcomes.
High levels of blood sugar have been linked to worse outcomes in patients treated for many different types of cancer, including brain tumors and lung cancer. Even in patients with less “metabolic” cancers, like prostate cancer, data reveal that a man’s blood sugar value can predict how well he will do with treatment. Along these lines, men that are found to have high blood sugar before removal of their prostate (a prostatectomy) also experience a larger risk of their cancer returning afterwards.2
2. Cut out evening screen time
While quantity of sleep is vital, quality of sleep may be just as important. Darkness fosters an environment that provides stimulus of our body’s natural production of melatonin. Blue light-emitting alarm clocks and television in the bedroom successfully deactivate our suprachiasmatic nucleus and its stimulation of the pineal gland. Blue light exposure at night has been shown to cause weight gain and impair metabolic function and glucose metabolism, increasing individuals’ blood sugar levels.
Adolescents who use electronic devices are plagued by poorer sleep quality and difficulty falling asleep. Monitors and phones provide long-lasting physiologic effects as they alert the brain that it is still in the day cycle of the circadian rhythm and not yet time for sleep. Based on these findings, it is unsurprising that blue light and LED exposure at night decreases melatonin release. Computer monitors result in less reduction than bright LED lights, which potently block melatonin production. Other results hint that even small amounts of light suppress melatonin, favoring a “lower is better” approach.
3. Exercise more
The improvement in the quality of life that exercise provides is well known. For some reason, we often forget that exercise can provide the same benefits for the cancer patient. Fourteen studies have revealed that exercise significantly improves quality of life in breast cancer patients. It also significantly improved physical functioning of women with breast cancer and improves their peak oxygen consumption, while reducing their fatigue.
Women who engage in both aerobic and resistance exercise with weights soon after their breast cancer treatment experience large health-related improvements. They also experience these improvements much faster than those women who wait to start exercising. Men who engaged in an eight-week cardiovascular exercise program during their treatment for prostate cancer with radiation therapy saw an improvement in their cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, muscle strength, and overall quality of life. They also experienced less fatigue, the most common side effect of radiation therapy.3
4. Quit smoking.
One out of every 3 cancer deaths in America is related to cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoke is known to cause 12 types of cancer, not just lung cancer. Second-hand smoke exposure causes lung cancer.4 Do we need to say more? Find a way to stop.
5. Reduce stress
Individuals with chronically stressful states, like depression and a lack of social support, seem to experience an increased risk of cancer. Yet, like most population studies, results have been mixed and often contradictory, and narrowing down the cause versus effect of this association has been difficult. Stress from our workplace, which usually includes high work demand, long hours, and a difficult working environment has shown both positive and negative links with cancer.
Difficult and stressful life events seem to have a stronger association with cancer, and specifically breast cancer. For instance, the death of a mother during childhood leaves the child at an increased risk of breast cancer later in life. Collateral damage from stressful events like death, divorce, or a continued stressful social situation takes a little over a decade to lead to cancer.5 Exercise, the wonder drug, does an incredible job at helping to reduce stress.
These are a few simple suggestions for resolutions, or even better, lifestyle changes, that can put you in a better position to fight off cancer if it comes knocking at your door. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that the number one thing you need to keep your resolutions is an accountability partner. At Inspire Exercise Medicine we work with you through your nutrition and meal planning, we help you to design your exercise program and we offer guidance on lifestyle adjustments to keep you on the right track toward your best self.
Dr. Colin Champ, MD, CSCS
Dr. Colin Champ, MD, CSCS, is a radiation oncologist with board certifications in radiation oncology and integrative and holistic medicine. Dr. Champ is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and his research interests include the prevention and treatment of cancer with lifestyle modification, including exercise and dietary modification.
Inspire Exercise Medicine
239.429.0800
www.Inspireem.com
3555 Kraft Road, Suite 130, Naples, FL 34105
References:
1. A;, S.R.L.M.K.D.F.H.E.J. Cancer statistics, 2022, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35020204/
2. Breast cancer and sugar – another smoking gun (2017) Colin Champ. Available at: https://colinchamp.com/breast-cancer-and-sugar/
3. Got cancer? keep moving: Cancer and exercise (2017) Colin Champ. Available at: https://colinchamp.com/got-cancer-keep-moving-cancer-exercise/
4. Cancer care settings and smoking cessation (2021) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/patient-care/care-settings/cancer/index.htm
5. Stress and cancer – it’s bad, but not all bad (2017) Colin Champ. Available at: https://colinchamp.com/stress-and-cancer/