Marian Barnick
With 25+ years experience, Marian’s passion is teaching clients how to use movement to reach their best potential.
Mobility Exercise for Prostate Cancer Patients
Marian Barnick
Marian Barnick is a Registered Kinesiologist and Movement Coach helping you decrease pain and improve performance by correcting biomechanics and body alignment.
Mobility Exercise Helps Prostate Cancer Patients on Active Surveillance
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men. Treatment is recommended based on a number of factors and can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and ADT (androgen deprivation therapy). These treatments can have a variety of side effects – some of them with very negative effects on quality of life.
Because of the side effects of treatment, if prostate cancer is found to be at its early stages and slow growing, the decision may be made to take an ‘active surveillance’ approach instead of more aggressive types of treatment.
Active Surveillance
Active surveillance monitors the patient with a variety of tests so that if there are any changes or progression, alternative approaches can be discussed.
Although active surveillance spares the patient from having to go through aggressive treatment, there may be other side effects. Patients develop anxiety knowing they’ve been diagnosed with cancer and then they have to wait and see if and when they need treatment.
The challenges of planning for the future and not knowing what may be ahead can be very difficult for patients and their families to deal with – patients have no control over their future.
But there is new research that is bringing hope to prostate cancer patients on active surveillance.
Mobility Exercise
Dr. Courneya is a very well respected researcher in the field of physical activity and cancer. This new research is studying exercise as a cancer therapy for prostate cancer patients. We know that people who exercise have been shown to have a reduced risk of certain types of cancer.
Dr. Courneya is testing his hypothesis that exercise can help shrink tumour size in patients already diagnosed with prostate cancer and on active surveillance. Positive findings from this study could provide another amazing benefit of exercise for cancer patients.
This would help to put some control back into the hands of prostate cancer patients and reduce their symptoms of anxiety. This research is looking to see is exercise can delay or possibly eliminate prostate cancer patients’ need for aggressive forms of cancer treatment.
Prostate cancer patients are being provided with mobility exercise. It’s important to have patients consistently participate and that they undergo an assessment with a Cancer Movement Therapist prior to commencing exercise.
Patients should follow the Foundations First Framework which ensures that any requirement for rehabilitative therapy is addressed prior to more global exercise. Mobility exercise includes stretching for flexibility, cardio-vascular exercise and assists with heart health, mental health, and many other areas of health and human movement.
Click on the link below to take a look at the video from Dr. Kerry Courneya from the Faculty of Kinesiology at University of Alberta.
www.prostatecancer.ca
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