Monday, December 11, 2006

An Unwanted Journey: Day 0383 - Exercise and Rectal Cancer

This is the first time I've read anything about exercise and the risks for rectal cancer.

A survey of 413,000 Europeans indicated that vigorous exercise or housework reduced the chance of having colon cancer...but it did nothing to reduce the likelihood of developing rectal cancer.

In a country like China, where exercise and nutrition are generally of a higher order than many western countries, only 25% of those diagnosed will survive 5 years, whereas in the western countries that percentage is 68%. And among the most prominent cancer killers in China is rectal cancer.

I guess what I learn from this is that sometimes second-guessing one's lifestyle and history for evidence of things one might have changed to avoid cancer is a waste of time. In my own case, my nutrition and exercise routines were pretty good, even though I have to admit that I was definitely overweight.

Now that my first "surveillance" colonoscopy has shown me free of any local recurrence of cancer, I am beginning to think about nutrition, exercise, hobbies and volunteer work, and occasionally obsessing about my vocation and the workplace environment. There are so many choices available to me again. But it seems that evaluating my cancer experience will be helpful in some decisions, not so helpful in others.

What is very clear is that I now have to take the phrase "cancer free" and begin applying it to my life in recovery. It will be a slow process, I think, but one every bit as complex as my life with cancer.

No comments: