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.
Though the study linked below does not definitively say that exercise slows myeloma progression, it does offer enough information for myeloma patients to add moderate exercise to their day.
Studies document the benefits of moderate exercise to reduce the risk of a MM diagnosis, help manage our mental health once we are diagnosed with MM, strengthen our bones and help manage our short, long-term and late stage side effects.
Despite my many long-term side effects, I exercise, moderately, daily. And I’m in complete remission. Exercise slows myeloma progression?
Though the research below is not conclusive, I think a case can be made that moderate exercise, in addition to the benefits linked above, can slow myeloma’s progression. After all, most of us are looking for therapies to give us deeper, longer remissions.
Combined with anti-MM nutrition, supplementation, lifestyle therapies and yes, even chemotherapy, newly diagnosed myeloma patients can envision a therapy path that can beat the 5 and 10 year averages.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about evidence-based non-conventional therapies to manage your MM.
Thank you,
David Emerson
Authors of the current study note that physical activity helps prevent cancer and decrease mortality, based on available evidence. They wanted to examine how physical activity influenced cancer progression in South Africa, as data in this area are lacking.
This research was a retrospective longitudinal observational study. It used anonymized data from people on the medical plan Discovery Health Medical Scheme in South Africa.
All participants were also part of a health promotion program called Vitality. This program is linked to the Discovery Health Medical Scheme and encourages behaviors like physical activity. It also allows physical activity to be recorded through wearable fitness devices and other actions like clocked gym attendance.
Researchers included participants in their analysis who had stage 1 cancer and had been in the Vitality program for at least 1 year before their diagnosis. They also conducted a subanalysis that excluded certain cancer types that were more likely to affect physical activity levels prior to diagnosis.
The average time participants were in the Vitality program was nine and a half years. Researchers divided participants into three groups based on physical activity levels:
For this study, physical activity meant at least moderate intensity, and researchers assigned participants into categories based on their physical activity in the 12 months before cancer diagnosis, although additional analysis considered earlier activity, too.
Researchers took into account age at diagnosis, sex, and socioeconomic status, which was based on factors like insurance type.
About 62% of participants had no recorded physical activity, but about 25% had moderate to high recorded physical activity. Prostate and breast cancer were the most common cancer types among participants.
Throughout the observed time frame, almost 19% of the participants died, but 65.5% of participants did not experience cancer progression.
Compared to those with no activity, people in the moderate to high physical activity group were 27% less likely to experience cancer progression and 47% less likely to experience death from any cause.
The low physical activity group was 16% less likely to experience cancer progression and 33% less likely to experience death from any cause compared to the group with no physical activity…
When looking at the probability of progression and death, the data continued to highlight the benefits of physical activity. For example, 2 years after diagnosis, people who had moderate to high physical activity in the year before diagnosis had an 80% chance of not dying or cancer not advancing to higher levels.
By comparison, people with no physical activity had a 74% chance of these events not happening. When looking at all-cause death, people with no physical activity had a 91% chance of survival, while people with moderate to high physical activity had a 95% chance of survival.
The research cannot establish a causal relationship, even though it points to the benefits of exercise. When looking at the probabilities of cancer progression and death, researchers used an example male individual with certain characteristics. This could have affected the results…
While researchers minimized the risk of reverse causality, it is still possible. There is also the possibility of bias because researchers did not adjust for factors like smoking. They also assumed participants who did not have recorded physical activity in the Vitality program were not doing recreational exercise.
Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, professor in the Epidemiology Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center McTiernan, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today that:
“There were several drawbacks to the study: It only collected exercise data from before diagnosis. We have no idea what these patients did afterwards […] While the measured exercise was likely accurate, it didn’t capture all that people do. So, for example, patients who had physically active jobs but didn’t wear watches that capture movement would have been inaccurately classified as doing no physical activity. The data support this since 60% were classified as having no physical activity. Even walking to your fridge or car or job entails some activity, so this study would have vastly underestimated amounts of activity.”