Cancer is a challenging illness that affects many people across the globe. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, they often have to go through treatments like chemotherapy.
While chemotherapy can help fight cancer, it can also cause unwanted side effects. One such side effect is a condition called peripheral neuropathy.
It’s a fancy name for nerve damage that often results in pain, numbness, and tingling in the hands and feet. It can make daily tasks hard, affect sleep, and lower a person’s quality of life.
The type of peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy is known as Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, or CIPN.
Many women who are treated for ovarian cancer experience this side effect. But here’s the good news: a group of researchers may have found a way to help these women lessen the effects of CIPN.
Exercising to Ease the Pain
The research was conducted by a team at Yale University led by a doctor named Anlan Cao. Dr. Cao and his team wondered if exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, could help.
Aerobic exercise includes activities that get your heart pumping, like walking, biking, swimming, or even dancing.
The researchers put together a six-month exercise program for women being treated for ovarian cancer. They wanted to see if this program could help lessen the pain and discomfort of CIPN.
To check their idea, they invited 134 women to take part in the study. The women were all from Connecticut and were part of a bigger study known as the Women’s Activity and Lifestyle Study.
The women were divided into two groups. One group of 69 women were asked to follow the exercise program.
The other group of 65 women didn’t do the exercise program. They were the control group, which means they were used for comparison.
Good News: Exercise Helps
After six months, the women who had been exercising reported feeling less pain and discomfort from CIPN. On a score that measures CIPN symptoms, the exercising women had an average of 1.3 points less.
The control group, on the other hand, actually reported a slight increase in pain and discomfort.
What’s even more encouraging is that the women who had the most pain and discomfort at the start of the study reported the biggest improvements.
Their scores improved by an average of 2 points. This suggests that exercise could be especially helpful for those who are suffering the most.
Making Exercise Part of Cancer Care
This study brings hope for many women who suffer from CIPN due to their ovarian cancer treatment. The research shows that regular exercise could potentially help them manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
However, more studies need to be done to confirm these findings. If these findings are confirmed, doctors could start including exercise as part of the treatment plan for women with ovarian cancer.
That means doctors would not just recommend chemotherapy and other medical treatments, but also regular exercise to help manage side effects.
This study is another reminder of how exercise can help our bodies in many different ways. It’s not just about keeping fit and losing weight, but also about managing illnesses and their side effects.
While dealing with cancer is difficult, studies like this one give us hope. It shows that there are ways to manage side effects and improve quality of life, even while fighting a tough illness like ovarian cancer.
If you care about pain, please read studies about extra virgin olive oil for arthritis, and pomegranate: A natural treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about a new method to treat cancer effectively, and this low-dose, four-drug combo may block cancer spread.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
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