Lucy Pemoni/AP
Staying fit and eating well can help cancer survivors, too, a review of the latest evidence shows.
Eat right and exercise is about as basic as medical advice gets.
Follow it, and you'll benefit from better overall fitness, improved quality of life, and a reduced risk for chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes.
The American Cancer Society now says the evidence has piled up that diet and exercise can help cancer survivors manage, beat, and stay free of their disease, too.
"There's just been an explosion of research in this area that gives us the confidence that these things matter," Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for ACS, tells Shots.
Doyle is a co-author of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors. Published this morning online by CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the guidelines are based on the results of more than 100 studies released since 2006, the last time ACS weighed in on the issue.
Those studies "really spell out the benefits of weight control, of physical activity, and of healthy diet in terms of recurrence of cancer and surviving cancer," Doyle says.
They key recommendations are:
It's not rocket science. After all, these are the same things healthy people are told to do to maintain overall fitness. But for cancer survivors, the stakes are even higher: in addition to the risk of recurrence, they also tend to be at increased risk of developing a second primary cancer.
Read more here:
Evidence Mounts That Diet, Exercise Help Survivors Cut Cancer Risk
