Live Laugh Learn Toronto

Dr. Paul Oh (centre) and the Toronto Live Laugh Learn Committee

Last night, Rethink Breast Cancer hosted our monthly Live Laugh Learn session for young women with breast cancer at lululemon in Toronto. Our speaker was Dr. Paul Oh from Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and he did an excellent job facilitating discussion on the remarkable impact exercise can have on prevention of breast cancer as well as survival, symptoms and quality of life for breast cancer patients. I highly recommend Dr. Oh as a speaker – very warm and friendly and everyone felt comfortable sharing and talking.

Take home message: exercise is very good for you! It’s actually really, really important! OK, no surprise there. But, it’s reaffirming and motivating to hear that women can reduce their risk of breast cancer by 30 % through exercise. And, new studies are showing exercise can help prevent re-occurrence of breast cancer.

How to reduce your risk for breast cancer: 45 for 4 to 5
The ideal amount and level recommended for maximum health and preventing illness is “45 for 4 to 5.” This means, aim for 45 minutes of vigorous exercise  4 to 5 days a week. Plus, try to get 2 weight baring workouts in a week too. Basically, we need to get our heads around daily exercise. Sounds a bit (or a lot) daunting but you can still benefit from breaking the total amount up throughout the day – ex. 20 minute brisk walk to work and 20 minute walk home plus taking the stairs during your work day adds up to the 45. We all agreed that finding something you love to do is hugely important if you’re going to make it stick. You don’t have to be a “gym” person…hockey, yoga, tobogganing with the kids. Finding a buddy to workout with is helpful – you can sweat and socialize. And, Dr. Oh emphasized how important it is to start slowly and work your way up. Instead of suddenly taking up running and risking injury or being deflated, it’s better to start with a brisk walk and start to add in a minute of jogging, then 5 minute jogging intervals etc. Basically, aim for the “45 for 4 to 5” but anything is better than nothing.

Dr. Paul Oh (in the pink shirt) and Rethink's Executive Director,
MJ DeCoteau (in her lulu's)

Exercise During Breast Cancer Treatment
In a roomful of young women with breast cancer there was a lot of discussion about exercising during treatment. Is it safe? Are gyms to be avoided for immune suppressed breast cancer patients? Dr. Oh said it’s not only safe to exercise during treatment, it’s really helpful for managing the side effects of chemotherapy. About half the room had experienced weight gain and muscle loss during treatment. Everyone experienced fatigue. Exercising throughout treatment can help with weight gain – you probably won’t lose weight but you’ll maintain. And, exercise boots energy. It’s counter intuitive when you are feeling tired and drained during treatment but moving around a bit can boost your energy level. Dr. Oh advised against pounding the pavement but gentle exercise like yoga or stationary bike or elliptical machine is better than being sedentary. And, exercise boosts your immunity. Don’t be afraid to go to the gym; just stay away from anyone hacking and make sure you wash your hands well.

If you are a young woman with breast cancer and have any exercise tips, please send them to us and I will share with our group. Click here to leave your comments and tips.

Creating Community for Young Women with Breast Cancer
As always with Live Laugh Learn, I was incredibly inspired by the community we are forming to support young women with breast cancer. We had about 30 women out last night and the feeling in the room was warm, supportive, relaxed. I’m so happy that Lulemon is supporting us by hosting our program – it’s the perfect atmosphere and the staff continue to be so generous about letting our women linger. It’s obvious that women love to talk – we don’t have one or two stragglers at the end of the night, we have a room full of women who want the evening to continue! I love the sharing that’s going on. As I mentioned in my first blog post of 2010, Rethink Breast Cancer is about creating a community for young women with breast cancer.

If you know any young women with breast cancer, please let them know about this blog so they can find out about Rethink Breast Cancer and our programs like Live Laugh Learn.  Click here to subscribe to our blog feed.

Live Laugh Learn Toronto

Best,
~MJ