A report by Macmillan Cancer Support, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the National Institute for Health Research Cancer and Nutrition Collaboration recommends the introduction of “prehabilitation" – a changed Lifestyle - immediately after a patient’s cancer diagnosis, even suggesting they had personal programmes tailored for each individual.
Acknowledging that poor Lifestyle choices cause cancer, the report concludes that there is a ‘teachable moment’ just after diagnosis, according to a number of research studies. For example, one from Yale showed that by taking exercise – just 35 minutes of walking a day – people with cancer would increase their survival times.
The report concluded that people diagnosed with cancer should be encouraged to:-
- Eat healthily, with lots of fruit and vegetables
- Take 150 minutes of exercise a week
- Quit smoking
- Limit alcohol to 14 units a week
- Control weight to be within healthy guidelines.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founderof CANCERactive said, “Better late than never, I suppose. We introduced the Rainbow Diet based on a stack of research in 2006. We were covering weight control then too and how women with breast cancer who lost excess weight in a controlled way would survive longer. Exercise – which is light to moderate and involves being out of breath for just 20 minutes was recommended by CANCERactive in 2006. No wonder our followers survive longer than the norm. No wonder people who have personal Prescriptions built for them tend to do so well.
It is just so desperately sad that it took charities like Macmillan more than a decade to wake up to the obvious and understand that the evidence-based science existed.
The next step is going to be the most interesting. Will Cancer Research UK be led screaming and kicking into this brave new world, or will they continue to insist that nothing helps their wonder drugs? Will the oncologists at the Royal Marsden continue to laugh at patients when the patient dares to say that they’ve changed their diet, or now takes exercise? Will they continue to mistakenly advise that there’s no science to support these therapies, therefore reducing patients’ potential survival times?
The evidence-based science exists. It has done since 2002. We have routinely recorded on the CANCERactive Website. You can apply it today. Even if your oncologist doesn’t know about it”.
Ironically, the report calls for patients to have personalised plans built for them soon after diagnosis in order for them to increase their survival times!!
Chris did his first two in 2002 - for Geoffrey Boycott (head and neck cancer) and Galina Dean (grade 4, stage 4, ovarian cancer) - both are alive and well today, 17 years later.
Go to: What patients say about personalised plans with Chris Woollams
CANCERactive - the appliance of Science