Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
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Muscles Help Long-term Multiple Myeloma Survival
“Approximately 80% of multiple myeloma patients experience a pathological fracture over the course of their disease and 90% will have bone lesions [2].”
Multiple myeloma survival is challenged by one of the primary MM symptoms and MM side effects experience by almost all MM survivors- bone damage. Bisphosphonates (pamidronate, zoledromic acid, etc.) are standard-of-care therapy for the newly diagnosed MM patient.
The challenge to the MM survivor is that
- our bone health deteriorates as a symptom of our MM itself
- our bone health deteriorates as a side effect chemotherapy, dexamethasone, lifestyle, etc.
- Bisphosphonate therapy is limited according to the article linked below
Many of us with MM are older. Many of us on MM therapies suffer from fatigue. I’m just saying that long-term multiple myeloma survivors are not the most active group of people…
The solution? A low-tech therapy if ever there was one…
According to the articles linked below, we need exercise to strengthen our muscles and we need muscles to both enhance our bone health as well as enhance our immune system.
And our heart and kidney health…
Two of the three most common end stage symptoms and side effects of MM survivors are:
- infection, pneumonia, aka immune system problems and
- pathological bone damage aka fractures, lesions, etc.
Multiple myeloma survivors don’t die from MM, they die from the symptoms of their MM as well as the side effects caused by MM therapies.
Exercise. Weight bearing exercise. Simple, low-tech MM therapy. For the record, I am NOT muscular. I am not Arnold Schwarzenegger nor am I Buster Crabbe. Not even close…The articles below are telling us that we need to be muscular, they simply document the therapeutic benefit of exercise for MM survivors.
My point is that newly diagnosed MM patients are bombarded with talk of the supposed benefits of conventional therapies. And to a limited extent, chemo, radiation, Bisphophonate therapies are necessary.
But, according to the articles below, long-term multiple myeloma survival requires exercise and muscles in order to strengthen our bones and our immune systems.
For more information about evidence-based, non-conventional therapies, scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Multiple Myeloma- Black Seed Oil, TQ- Kill MM, Pro Bone, Kidney, Heart-
- Multiple Myeloma Chemotherapy- When Cancer Treatment Might Kill You
- Multiple Myeloma Symptoms, Side Effects- Vitamin D3
Bone disease in multiple myeloma and precursor disease: novel diagnostic approaches and implications on clinical management
“Approximately 80% of multiple myeloma patients experience a pathological fracture over the course of their disease and 90% will have bone lesions [2].
The manifestations of bone involvement in patients with multiple myeloma include osteopenia, osteolytic lesions and fractures, which can have devastating clinical effects by increasing the morbidity of multiple myeloma patients. In addition, multiple myeloma patients who develop pathologic fractures have a 20% increased risk of death [3]…”
The Effectiveness of Physical Exercise on Bone Density in Osteoporotic Patients
“Physical exercise is considered an effective means to stimulate bone osteogenesis in osteoporotic patients.
The authors reviewed the current literature to define the most appropriate features of exercise for increasing bone density in osteoporotic patients.
Two types emerged:
(1) weight-bearing aerobic exercises, i.e., walking, stair climbing, jogging, and Tai Chi. Walking alone did not appear to improve bone mass; however it is able to limit its progressive loss. In fact, in order for the weight-bearing exercises to be effective, they must reach the mechanical intensity useful to determine an important ground reaction force.
(2) Strength and resistance exercises: these are carried out with loading (lifting weights) or without (swimming, cycling).
For this type of exercise to be effective a joint reaction force superior to common daily activity with sensitive muscle strengthening must be determined…”
Mechanisms found to explain atypical femoral fractures
“But there is a caveat: Prolonged use of these drugs (bisphophonates) can alter the composition of bone, making it more brittle and more susceptible to a rare but serious form of fracture…
It’s been known for some time that prolonged use of bisphosphonates can put people at risk for atypical femoral fracture (AFF), a break in the shaft of the femur that can occur as a result of little or no trauma…
The existing bone ages and gets brittle over time.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Donnelly said. “It’s extremely good to prevent bone loss, but the drugs will also slow this natural process, which allows turnover…”
Muscles support a strong immune system
“In the fight against cancer or chronic infections, the immune system must be active over long periods of time. However, in the long run, the immune defence system often becomes exhausted. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now found initial evidence in mice that skeletal muscles help to keep the immune system functional in chronic diseases…
In many cases, severe weight loss and a decrease in muscle mass are the result of cancer or dangerous infections. In addition to this process known as cachexia, patients often suffer from a weakened immune system. One of the reasons for this is a loss of function of a group of T-cells, whose task it is to recognize and kill virus-infected cells or cancer cells…
“If the T-cells, which actively fight the infection, lose their full functionality through continuous stimulation, the precursor cells can migrate from the muscles and develop into functional T-cells,” said Jingxia Wu, lead author of the study. “This enables the immune system to fight the virus continuously over a long period…”
So could regular training strengthen the immune system? “In our study, mice with more muscle mass were better able to cope with chronic viral infection than those whose muscles were weaker…