Diet and Exercise

As a PA student my rotation in family medicine was a real wake up call.  I realized, in only the way a hands-on, real life experience can drive a point home, that so many medical problems are easily ameliorated by improved diet and exercise. It blew my mind at how unwilling people were to make better decisions. To me it was a no brainer. Eat right, exercise and you’ll feel better, have more energy, be at less risk for heart disease and likely be able to stop taking many of the dozens of pills you take every day! I couldn’t understand the resistance to making lifestyle changes that would so clearly improve all aspects of one’s life. I know now it is sometimes more complicated than that. It that can be difficult to wade through the plethora of information that is out there, difficult to understand what is  just the latest fad and what really matters. 

It’s no secret eating right and exercising help improve health; we are constantly being inundated with messages about the importance of diet and exercise.  Mostly those messages revolve around diabetes, heart health and cholesterol. Now, more than ever before, there is an abundance of evidence to suggest that there are associations with food, weight, exercise and one’s risk for cancer. When people ask me what they can do to prevent cancer my answer is swift and clear, “eat right and exercise (and don’t smoke).” When cancer patients ask me what they can do to reduce their risk of recurrence my answer is swift and clear, “eat right and exercise.”  It actually matters.

So we know that eating right and exercising matter. But what does that mean? What should you and shouldn’t you eat and why? In Diet and Exercise I will share with you all that I know, all the reasons why it matters and share how you can make eating right and exercising an integral part of your cancer journey.