Breast cancer is the most common caner in women, with more than 13,500 cases diagnosed in Australia each year. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 85.

Exercise and breast cancer

Most of the studies on exercise and cancer to date have focused on women with breast cancer, with the evidence supporting the following exercise recommendations.

Moderate intensity exercise is recommended.

Accumulating at least 30 minutes on at least three days each week can lead to benefits.

Aerobic and supervised resistance (weights training) are safe and beneficial. 

Depending on your fitness level, many short sessions may be needed to accumulate at least 30 minutes of daily exercise. It is important to  build up gradually, and then aim to maintain at least 30 minutes of exercise on five days each week.

Survivors of breast cancer still need to overcome all the usual exercise barriers experienced by women with breast cancer (e.g. affordability, time constraints, lack of interest or motivation), but there are some common concerns related to the breast cancer experience. This can include fatigue, lymphoedema, and discomfort.

It is important to speak with appropriate health professionals regarding your individual needs, including accredited exercise physiologists who can design a suitable exercise program. Your GP or treating specialist can assist you to make a start.  

For further information and a list of recommended activities download the EIM Breast cancer and exercise Fact Sheet can be found at this website. http://exerciseismedicine.org.au/health-care-providers/factsheets-2

A University of Michigan study looked at the impact of exercise on 4,345 employees in a financial services company that had just started a workplace wellness program. Roughly 30 percent of employees were high risk and suffering from metabolic syndrome, a dangerous cluster of risk factors associated with diabetes and heart disease. Overall, about 34 percent of U.S. adults have metabolic syndrome.

The study found that when the high-risk employees accumulated the government-recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week, their health care costs and productivity equaled that of healthy employees who didn’t exercise enough, said Alyssa Schultz, a researcher at the Health Management Research Center in the U-M School of Kinesiology.

“It was a real surprise, the level of protection physical activity gave to people with metabolic syndrome,” Schultz said. “We can’t control our family history and some health indicators such as cholesterol can be difficult to manage, but if individuals get enough exercise, the negative impacts of metabolic syndrome could be mitigated.”

This is also good news for companies trying to cut health care costs, Schultz said. Employees with metabolic syndrome who exercised enough cost $2,770 in total health care annually, compared to $3,855 for workers with metabolic syndrome who didn’t exercise enough. Pharmacy costs alone were twice as much.

With a bit of imagination, employers can develop and implement low cost interventions and programs that make it easy for workers to exercise on the job, Schultz said.

Some examples include walking groups, signs reminding employees to take the stairs rather than the elevator, or developing and distributing maps of walking routes that fit into a lunch hour, she said.

“These can give a huge return for all employees and for employers,” Schultz said.

If you can only do 10 minutes a day, instead of the government-recommended 20, that’s fine too, Schultz said. Any amount of exercise is better than none. As long as a person does something for “more than zero minutes” there are benefits in terms of health and economic outcomes in the workplace.

More information: “The association of self-reported employee physical activity with metabolic syndrome, health care costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism.” J Occup Environ Med. 2014 Sep;56(9):919-26. DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000000257.

Source: https://www.essa.org.au/media_release/essa-blog-20-minutes-of-exercise-a-day-dramatically-lowers-the-risk-of-diabetes-and-heart-disease-even-for-employees-with-a-high-risk-of-developing-those-conditions/

In 2011-12, 3.3% of Australians (726,000) people reported having osteoporosis.

Fortunately, one of the ways to slow down the rate of osteoporosis is physical therapy/exercise.

Click here to see our latest newsletter about it.

However, on a much nicer and sunnier day, this is a good start to physical activity!

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