Running is one of
The selfie you see in this post was taken October 24, 2016, when I was in chemotherapy treatment with a very toxic drug called Adriamycin. Yes, I know all chemo is toxic but this one has a nickname, “The Red Devil”. It is known to be very toxic to the heart. Knowing this, I made even more of an effort to get my regular runs in during treatment. I wanted to keep my heart strong. Yes, of course, there were days I wasn’t up to it but if I couldn’t run, I walked.
Many studies have shown that physical activity can help lessen certain side effects of treatment, such as fatigue and depression, and has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrence and improve survival.
In fact, there are so many benefits for physical exercise during cancer treatment that I wanted to share the entire list from The American Cancer Society that can be found on cancer.org.
- Keep or improve your physical abilities (how well you can use your body to do things)
- Improve balance, lower risk of falls and broken bones
- Keep muscles from wasting due to inactivity
- Lower the risk of heart disease
- Lessen the risk of osteoporosis (weak bones that are more likely to break)
- Improve blood flow to your legs and lower the risk of blood clots
- Make you less dependent on others for help with normal activities of daily living
- Improve your self-esteem
- Lower the risk of being anxious and depressed
- Lessen nausea
- Improve your ability to keep social contacts
- Lessen symptoms of tiredness (fatigue)
- Help you control your weight
- Improve your quality of life
For me, running not only benefited my health but it kept me from going to a very dark place when things were indeed dark. It was therapy, it was meditation, it was life.
I still continue to run regularly, at least 3 to 5 times a week. It is by far my favorite exercise. I truly believe running really made a difference for not only the side effects experienced during treatment but my life post-cancer as well. It keeps
