My Answer to Breast Cancer- Is all exercise good?

Hi there. It's Dr. Jen Simmons from Real Health MD. Today we're talking exercise. So this is my answer to breast cancer. And I feel like so many people struggle with what kind of exercise is right for them, and then it becomes a stressful thing, and they don't do it. And there are so many health benefits to exercise that go way beyond weight loss. In fact, I would argue that exercise is not the key to weight loss. It. It can help you to maintain your weight, but you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. So the key to weight loss is actually diet. But there is so many benefits to exercise. So let's talk about. First of all, exercise prevents you from premature death, except in very specific situations where people have an inherent heart abnormality that makes exercise dangerous for them. Exercise will prevent premature death. It will prevent you from dying of heart disease, of cancer, of diabetes, of hypertension. Exercise decreases your blood pressure, which is why it protects against heart disease. It decreases your blood sugar, which is why it protects against diabetes. It decreases depression and anxiety, and that has tremendous effects across the board. First, it is better than any drug out there on the market to prevent the depression and anxiety and to treat or reverse depression and anxiety. And that's a really powerful statement because unlike all of those pharmaceutical drugs which come with a host of side effects, exercise, the side effects of exercise is all benefit. So I think that that's a really important issue for people to understand. Exercise also helps to maintain a healthy weight, like we spoke about, maintain healthy bones, muscles, joints. So when you exercise, you actually move better than when you don't. And that's a really important point as well. Exercise, in particular in the cancer population and in the breast cancer population decreases fatigue associated with cancer and chemotherapy. It decreases side effects of chemotherapy. This is so meaningful. So so many people struggle with the side effects of chemotherapy, like fatigue and joint pain. And exercise will actually prevent those things. It will decrease pain and pain levels and increase motility, which is also important. Exercise will decrease the markers of inflammation. So many people, when they get treatment, something called chemo brain, and that is from inflammation that then gets transferred to the brain. And exercise decreases those inflammatory markers, decreases those inflammatory chemicals, and therefore blocks chemo brain. So the American Cancer Society recommends exercise for everyone with cancer, everyone with cancer. And walking for just one hour a week decreases your risk of dying from breast cancer by 49%. That is an astounding statistic. Right? So one hour of exercise a week, one hour of walking, not even strenuous exercise, but one hour of walking a week will decrease your risk of dying from breast cancer. I think that's mind blowing statistic. So why, if all of these great things happen with exercise, why do so many people struggle with exercise? Well, it's because all exercise isn't for everyone. So I recently ran my genetics, I did a DNA360 test and what I learned is that when you exercise, and this is for everyone, when you exercise, when you, whenever you burn fuel, you create some exhaust, right? You create some byproduct of that. And if your body is very apt, very good at processing that, oh my hair is crazy today, then you can do lots of endurance exercise and lots of cardiovascular exercise because you're very efficient at getting rid of those byproducts. However, there are some of us, me included, that cannot process those byproducts efficiently or effectively. And for those people, cardiovascular exercise is actually more inflammatory. And as a young athlete, I was a sprinter and very fast as a sprinter, but the second I did any distance, I felt terrible. I was slow, I was fatigued, exhausted, and that is all because of my genetics. And I was always kind of disparaged by the fact that I couldn't do any extended cardiovascular exercise and I couldn't keep up with people on the peloton or in spin class or in aerobics class. And it was always off putting for me. And now I have learned that there is a genetic reason for that and that it's just not the right kind of exercise for me and the right kind of exercise for me or someone who has that similar genetic code. We should be doing gentle exercise, walking, nothing with a sustained raised heart rate. And the time that we do exercise in the day really matters because we process chemicals better, we process toxins better in the earlier part of the day and not so much in the later part of the day. So anything that involves more cardiovascular work should be done for me in the morning rather than at night. And at night it's time for gentle exercise, it's time for stretching and restorative yoga or even weightlifting. So, so I learned so much when I ran my DNA, when I did my DNA 360. And I'm going to share bits and pieces with you every week. But if you haven't found the right kind of exercise for you, the kind that makes you smile, the kind that makes you happy, then send me an email to inforeealhealthmd.com that's infoealhealthmd.com and tell me, I want to know. This is Dr. Jen Simmons from Real Health MD Bye for now.