Has Breast Cancer Touched Your Life?

Are you currently a breast cancer patient? Or a survivor? Do you know someone who is? Or someone who did not survive?  Chances are everyone reading this will answer yes to one of these questions. 1 in 8 women developed some form of breast cancer.   The good news is that the survival rate has been improving each year since 1990, thanks in part to early detection and improved treatment techniques.

Exercise is one of the improvements in treatment. Doing regular exercise will cut down your risk of developing the disease, as well as preventing its return, if you're a survivor.  Three to five hours weekly (30-40 min a day) of moderate activity has been shown to give protection from breast cancer.  Physical inactivity may contribute to the breast cancer. Women who are overweight produce and store more estrogen in their bodies. Exposure to estrogen is linked to breast cancer. Obese women have a greater amount of breast tissue, causing it to be more difficult to detect breast tumors, which often times results in late detection.

As a cancer survivor performing regular exercise can help return you back to normal function.  It has been shown that beyond the benefits of weight management, reducing the risk of recurrence and improving range of motion at the surgical site, exercise can aid in a multitude of “symptoms”.  Exercise has been shown to improve mood, raises your self-esteem, and gives you a better body image. Exercise improves muscle tone, strength, and endurance.  After the trauma of surgery, exercise can help reincorporate the body back into a whole. Up to now the focus had been on the breasts.  By performing integrated whole body exercises, postural distortions and muscular compensation can be improved and even reversed. Research has shown that exercise can even help the dreaded “Chemo Brain”.

At Morton Plant Hospital we have a program called Power.  It provides a continuum of care from diagnoses through recovery. A team of individuals including surgeons, oncologists, nurse navigators, counselors, physical therapist and exercise physiologist work together to ensure each patient is getting the optimal treatment.

GET OUTSIDE AND PLAY

We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world with many opportunities to get out and explore our environment.  But many hide in the air conditioning and never take advantage of all the great opportunities.  This inactivity does not go unnoticed by our children and other young people in our lives.  It is time for ourselves and those we love to get out and PLAY!

The rise in childhood obesity is frightening, which is why teaching healthy behaviors at a young age is essential. Behaviors involving physical activity and nutrition are the cornerstone of preventing obesity in children and adolescents.  Physically active children have fewer chronic health problems than kids who are sedentary.  It is also evident that fit children do better in school, have greater self-confidence and higher self-esteem. The childhood obesity trend is not only producing unfit children but promoting a society of individuals with a myriad of health issues. Get your kids moving!  You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on teams and sporting equipment, just get your kids outside, running, jumping, biking – just playing.

As parents, friends and teachers we can not only help ourselves improve our fitness levels and lose those extra pounds, but we can be good role models to the current youth and help them see that fitness and a healthy life style can be fun and a central pillar in our pursuit of happiness!

Pelvic Floor

With summer upon us and swimsuit season in full swing, we will discuss the forgotten core muscle, the pelvic floor. This muscle group, spoken about in hushed tones by some and not at all by others, is an important muscle group that needs to be considered.  

The pelvic floor is comprised of a group of muscles that make up the floor of the body's core.  It is important that they work in an integrated fashion with the other core muscles (abdominals, low back, etc.). If all of these muscles are not working together correctly, pain can be experienced all over the body (groin and low back for example).

The Kegel has long been touted as “THE” exercise for the pelvic floor.  While I agree the voluntary pelvic floor contraction of the Kegel exercise  has some benefit in improving muscle strength, I would argue that it has very little value in returning the pelvic floor to normal function. The more important action to work on is restoring a subconscious contraction that would happen in a normal situation.

When dysfunction occurs, the normal reflexive nature of the pelvic floor is inhibited, which is where the troubles begin. You should not have to think to contract your pelvic floor, rather you need to create an environment where the pelvic floor will contract on its own.  The proper contraction should occur naturally, like walking across the floor  or breathing - you do not need to think about each step and breath you take.

In formal terms the whole system discussed here is named the Pelvic Core Neuromuscular System (PCNS). Now lets explore exercises that will stimulate the whole core to work together while sparking the neurological system to do what it was meant to do.  

When dysfunction of the PCNS occurs, the normal reflexive nature of the pelvic floor is inhibited. As a result, you may experience incontinence, testicular pain and/or low back pain to name a few. There are traditional exercises for the pelvic floor, the Kegal exercise for example. However, the PCNS must be exercised in such a way that it will be trained to turn on automatically, so that it supports the core and does the job it was meant to do. Ninety-nine percent of everyday bodily function is subconscious. Consequently, if you have to think to contract your pelvic floor, the reflex may not be there when you need it.

In order to activate the pelvic floor muscles during exercise, hip rotation must be included. The exercises below produce subconscious activation of the PCNS. Perform all exercises in sets of 10 repetitions.

Mini Squat With Cross Punch

Stand with feet neutral (shoulder width apart, feet facing forward). Perform a mini squat and roll knees inward. Cross punch in the air (alternate arms) at various levels (up, down, to the side, back, diagonal, etc.).  Perform with toes turned inward and with toes turned outward. Repeat whole series with knees rolled outward.

Squat With Hip Mobility

Stand with feet neutral (shoulder width apart, both feet facing forward). Perform a mini squat and roll knees inward, then rotate your hips in clockwise and counterclockwise directions.  Perform with toes turned inward and with toes turned outward.  Repeat whole series with knees rolled outward.

Pelvic Floor Squats

Thoracic Spine

3D Lunges

Core Planks