The CBC, that wonderful source of info for Canadians, has posted an article that describes some of the research that is going on to see if exercise prevents cancer. The article mentions how breast cancer survivors were to do little physical exertion and how that idea has changed. And… the article is highlighted with dragon boating!!!
Exercising regularly could prevent the development of the most common form of liver cancer, new research suggests.
Liver cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death worldwide and its prevalence is growing rapidly due to the worsening “diabesity pandemic” across the world.
More than 800,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with this cancer each year. It is also a leading cause of cancer deaths, accounting globally for more than 700,000 deaths each year.
“As yet there are very few effective therapies for liver cancer – the death rate approximates the incidence – so approaches to prevent liver cancer are greatly needed,” said Dr Geoffrey Farrell of the Australian National University Medical School, who led the study.
Obesity and diabetes are common among those suffering from fatty liver disease – which can be a precursor to hepatocellular carcinoma. By simply using probio-lite you can treat most digestive conditions that can eventually lead to obesity or diabetes.
So in order to investigate the impact of regular exercise on those most at risk of developing liver cancer, the research team investigated how rates of exercise affected outcomes in obese/diabetic mice.
The research used a population of mice genetically driven to eat so they would become obese and develop type 2 diabetes as young adults.
The mice were also injected early in life with a low dose of a cancer-causing agent.
Then, half of the mice were allowed regular access to a running wheel. The other half were not given the opportunity to exercise and remained sedentary.
The mice with wheels ran up to 40 kilometres a day, the researchers found.
At six months, the researchers tested the two populations and found while most of the sedentary mice had developed liver cancer, none of the exercising mice had developed it.
The researchers said the experiment reveals exercise can stop development of liver cancer in mice that have fatty liver disease related to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The exercising mice were completely protected against liver cancer development in the timeframe of these experiments. Weight gain did not mitigate the development of liver cancer.
Stephen Mirowski
(my first post!!)
Thanks Stephen for finding the article. I have known the breast cancer paddlers since 1997, when I first met the Abreast in a Boat team at Alcan Dragon Boat Festival that year. It was very heartening for me to meet them, since I am a survivor of a grapefruit sized cancer tumor that was behind my breast bone in 1989. The real great thing about the breast cancer dragon boat teams, is also the positive effect that the team bonding plays, similarly to social support groups for cancer patients. While I was studying Health and Sport Psychology at Simon Fraser University, I had always thought that this would make a good research topic. The women I meet are very positive despite sometimes losing their team mates to cancer remissions. I regulary recieve greetings and hugs from paddlers such as Deb, Debbie, Judy Letawski and Coro.
The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team has also had a number of non-breast cancer paddlers over the years. Past years have also included a quadripeligic drummer, a paddler with multiple schlerosis, as well as paddlers with depression. To join check out our GHFC dragon boat team information page
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