Cancer and the martial arts

[doc]

Hello Mr Doc, I've been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer & have undergone treatment to no avail. It is my belief that in order for my body and mind to fend off a disease, they both must first be strengthened. My question is; Can martial arts achieve this for me, and if so how & where do I begin training? I've tried everything else that I've been instructed to do, & honestly, i do not want to die, nor do I accept that it is my time. Could u please lend me any advice u may have? Much Thanks!

I've forwarded this to a colleague, in the field of physical therapy, who has some experience working with cancer patients (and others with long standing illnesses) to get his opinion. I'll opine later. But first, let me emphasize that these comments are just that; a commentary, loosely based upon the subject of "cancer and the martial arts". In no way should these comments be used as a medical opinion; you really need to get your medical advice from your physicians, and most certainly, not from the internet.

Here's Randozo's commentary:

Unfortunately, we're talking about something more serious than a disease caused by a pathogen and you are past the stage where strengthening would help prevent the onset of this particular condition. And consider that cancer is oblivious to how healthy a body is - it will make a home wherever it can.

Almost any physical activity of sufficient intensity will trigger an adaptive response - i.e. increased strength/endurance etc. However this can only occur when the body has sufficient ability to recuperate. When a person is ill or injured, that ability is compromised since the body must divert resources from maintaining health to healing damage. If you exceed your ability to recuperate - you will increase your stress response and become more vulnerable to disease and injury. You cannot strengthen an injury - it has to be repaired first. Therein lies the difficulty of your situation. I've seen people gain the most benefit by doing modest things to minimize the damage of an illness while maintaining as high a level of function as possible. Martial arts is a physical endeavor- it's not magic- the principles above apply. Be careful of high expectations and you can try to practice some simple exercises first to see how your body responds before indulging in vigorous training. Practice with the intent to learn, not to cure yourself. Set good roots for the next life (if you believe such a thing) and prepare yourself. There are many texts that deal directly with confronting our mortality and you may find them of some use. Not everyone with terminal cancer dies from cancer - some choke, some get another disease, some survive. But there is no certainty other than we all will meet the same fate for different reasons regardless of our best efforts to avoid it. Live well for as long as you're alive. As for martial training or any physical exercise, work within your capacity and consult with your doctors about your intention to start a program and its suitability for your condition.

You can check out any number of DVDs if you have no access to an instructor but they are no substitute for actual instruction - primarily good for reference. simple calisthenics like the 8 section exercises are a good place to start for many people, but since I don't know your current physical state I can't say it's right for you and don't want you to construe this as medical advice.

Hope this helps and I wish you well.

I submit his commentary for educational purposes only; I do not necessarily endorse it. I will have more to say later.

[Maestro]

say more now, been awhile have been gone and lifes been crazy these last few weeks

[Alfie]

Hi all
There are many fruit are good for cancer patient but regular exercise is good for any disease.They say the natural pigments which give some fruit and vegetables a rich red, purple or blue colour act as powerful anti-cancer agents.Red grapes,lemon juice,apple, cranberry,these fruit are good for health and cancer disease


Gold Coast Swimming Coach

[doc]

I remember many years ago, back in 1996, when I had suffered my second migraine induced stroke; it had left me barely able to walk, as my right leg was fairly weak, usable only if kept it stiff legged as a sort of a crutch. I also remember being in the physical therapy swimming pool back then, in the pool, on some sort of underwater treadmill, being held up by some ninety pound female physical therapist. Two hundred and fifty pounds of impaired flesh that had poor balance, constant headaches, and a myriad of other symptoms, being held in place by this tiny little girl. All I could think of at the time, as she kept repeating to me "put that foot forward, now stand on it, put the other foot forward...." was if I had completely lost my balance and toppled over, would she at least be able to bring my head to the surface so I wouldn't drown. As I walked on this thing in the pool, being partially supported by three feet of water, all I could think of was drowning in this shallow pool with some tiny girl screaming her lungs out, at a relatively young age. What a way to go.

You know, when you get stricken with a serious illness, a lot of things go through your mind. And I can assure you, out of all the physicians that you've probably dealt with, not one really knows what you're going through. They don't understand the fears and anxieties, the questions, the doubts; they don't understand why you may think the way that you do now; they don't understand this slap in the head that you got that basically says that your mortality is not infinite on this earth. The don't think about the thoughts that you might have about your family and loved ones, the friends, the experiences, the loves and the tragedies. Lots of stuff goes through your head during times like these, and that physician that you're sitting in front of who's discussing your disease with you, just doesn't understand your pain. He may know your disease, and what it's doing to you, but he can't do anything about the pain. The pain that tears apart your mind and psyche.

I've taken care of a lot of cancer patients during my career, and for the most part, I did so with a sense of relative detachment. Yes, you felt sorry for them, but, it was a job, and you did what you had to do. Getting any closer than that with patients sometimes just led to too much despair. True, some people did get better, some people got cured. But occasionally, you had the patient that was expected to die and didn't, and then you had the patient that you thought you could save, and didn't. Well, this is not just true for cancer patients, it was true with all sorts of diseases and trauma. You just didn't know sometimes. Which is why, I think, most physicians tend to be a little detached when caring for patients. There's only so much emotional energy that you can spread around.

There was one patient that I remember from many years ago, a man in his seventies, who had worked in shipyards all his life. He had come to the surgical center for a pleural decortication. That is, you open the chest, and peel out the inside lining of the chest. You usually do it for cancers that spread to the pleura, but in his case, the history of work and the procedure stated on the board had made it very clear to me, that I was dealing with a man who had not long to live. No doubt, this guy had mesothelioma. When I interviewed him and evaluated his chart prior to surgery, it was clear that he had mesothelioma, and, he knew it, along with the ramifications. The ramifications being, usually, six months..... He had asked me what I had thought about his disease, not really wondering what sort of answer he had expected from me. So, I just turned it around, and asked him what he thought about his disease. His answer had surprised me.

He told me that he only had a few months to live. And, that he was happy. And from looking at him, it was obvious that he truly was. He told me that he had accepted it, and that he was grateful that God had at least given him time to get his affairs in order, spend time with his wife and grandchildren, and make as many plans for the future for his family as his time allowed. The time allowed that he had expected, was only a few months. I took him to surgery, we cleaned out what tumor we could from his chest, and then sent him home to die.

I had never seen such a degree of acceptance before. Now you've all heard about the Kubler Ross stages of grief; they're there, they are true, you see them in people. But this degree of acceptance that this man had exhibited, was unparalleled. At the time, I didn't think that if I had been in the same position, I could honestly be as strong as this individual had been. At this point in my life, I still doubt I could do it.

My points being, from all of this, are basically two things.

• No one knows how you truly feel.
• No one knows how you will truly proceed from here on out.

Now, herein lies the problem. What people do when they're faced with the horrible, is sometimes unpredictable. I had a young man in the surgery clinic a long time ago, a guy in his early twenties, who had a mass on his gluteal muscles, that he basically just ignored for a year or two. He had thought that this bump on his but was the result of falling down; the bump had started out as a sore point, grew to the size of a golf ball, and by the time he had decided to come into the university surgical clinic, it was the size of a grapefruit. How he had ignored this thing, or had made excuses for it for so long, was beyond all of us. But what he had had was a malignant sarcoma, a tumor of muscle, and the only surgical procedure at that time to attempt to save his life, was a hemi-pelvectomy, a barbaric procedure in which you remove the entire leg and half the pelvis. Now if the kid had survived the surgery, he basically would have been bisected in half, and no doubt, would have died of the inevitable pulmonary metastasis he had no doubt growing microscopically in his lungs. Against the entire surgical team's advice, he left the clinic and the medical system, never to return. He had told me on his way out that he was going to just go to church and pray to God to remove the tumor.

Well, praying to anyone wasn't going to do a damn thing, it was a foolhardy thing to do medically, but, in reality, it was probably the best thing for him to do. But it really made the issue that some people, who are faced with a horrible diagnosis, sometimes ignore medical advice, and proceed to take part in "other treatment modalities". Generally, and I can assure you, these "other treatment modalities" are escape mechanisms for people, and they don't work. Period.

I had a friend, a heavy, heavy smoker, who I had diagnosed with lung cancer, got into surgery right away, got his tumor removed, and got him on chemotherapy. He remained fairly healthy for a few years, until tumor recurred in his mediastinum. At that time, I had been traveling China quite a bit, and he had wanted me to research Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, I went to the usual TCM spots and distribution pharmacies, spoke to some of the "doc's" in them, and was surprised to get similar recommendations. They had all recommended this one physician in Beijing who had made his own special blend of herbs that was curing cancer. Well, I, being not exactly a believer in TCM, was quite suspicious, and had advised my friend Jim about this, but he had wanted me to proceed and find this guy in Beijing. I did so.

The Beijing doctor had a supply of pills that would cost seven hundred dollars, which I had paid. I got the pills back to Jim in the US, who started taking them promptly. He would talk to me every week and tell me how he was doing, how he was feeling better, how he thought the pills were making him healthy again. I had doubted it, but, listening never hurt anybody. Jim finished the few month supply of pills that I had brought him, and then he died.

Well, it gave him hope, but I doubt it did anything more than that, other than making some guy in Beijing richer than the average Chinese.

My point being from this, is basically one thing:

• It's easy to try to pursue unproven / poorly proven / irresponsibly proven / homeopathic / psychic / or otherwise, treatment modalities.

Coffee enemas in Mexico, TCM in China, Qi Gong, "new scientific breakthroughs" on the internet, etc, etc, etc, there's so much out there, and it can be so enticing to those in need. It is my firm belief, after looking at a lot of this stuff, that the only real medicine for disease, is real medicine.

With that said, you wrote to me for advice, and quite honestly, I can't give you any. I can't, and I won't. I was a bit shocked that someone would approach me with a question of this sort, as quite honestly, the internet is NOT the place to get medical advice, especially for a serious illness. And I would strongly advise you, that if you do continue to search for answers on the internet, from strange and unknown people, that you proceed extremely carefully, because there are a lot of charlatan scumbags out there that don't give a shit about you, and only care about enriching themselves, regardless of the damage that they cause to others. Pure and simple and to the point: You should be getting your medical advice from your chosen qualified medical professionals.

Here's what I will say, and these are just general commentaries, not applicable to anyone in particular:

• When someone says that they have "terminal cancer", I always get a little suspicious as to the veracity of that claim. Has that been confirmed by a reliable physician experienced in this field, from a reliable and accredited institution? Have there been second opinions obtained? Has there been research of other medical facilities to get other opinions regarding diagnosis and treatment options?? Without knowing staging and tumor grade, it's not clear how advanced a disease is. I wouldn't call any cancer terminal unless I knew it was terminal. (And even then, I've seen some people do well for a few years, given the proper treatment. I have one 80 year old friend with colon cancer who was treated years ago, thought he just wasn't going to survive it, and he's still running around like nothing happened, with no evidence of recurrence).
• When cancer is present, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Herbal medicine, chiropractic, homeopathic treatments, qi gong, martial arts, acupuncture, massage, etc, these things are not going to cure that disease. They may make a patient feel better, but they won't stop tumor progression. The only thing that stops tumor progression, initially, is the body's immune system, but if one has radiologically or otherwise visible tumors, then it's surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. People who start wandering into these paramedical type fields looking for help usually end up with a useless frustrating experience that wastes precious time and opportunity, though generally, few will admit their mistake.
• People who forgo real medical care and who pursue these "other medical pursuits" usually end up with a very bad outcome. Desperate people do desperate things; desperation almost never leads to success or anything of benefit.
• If one wants to do martial arts to feel better, than one should do so. Will it make one stronger, it will probably help. Nutrition is important also. But as for its ability to terminate cancer, I have found nothing in the medical literature that even comes close to suggesting that. I did find one study (attached) that seemed to suggest that people with cancer who attended fitness programs tended to keep their strength and sense of well being, but no mention was made of it curing the disease.
• People sometimes go to other countries looking for help, as other countries sometimes have different levels of research and different levels of opportunity treatment wise because of lack of federal government restrictions. I spent some time in Bangkok, and was very impressed with the quality of care, the level of sophistication, and the medical advances that they enjoyed, primarily because of their "proximity" to European health care ideas, and their lack of what we have here, the FDA, which sometimes causes undue restrictions on medical research. They also have something else that is very important to medical care: a lack of attorneys. They practice medicine to practice medicine, without the constant fear and "over the shoulder watching" that we have in America. They're more apt to experiment with new ideas than we are here in the US, and therefore, sometimes have an expanded treatment regimen for certain diseases. I've had friends with cancer who have pursued treatments in other countries such as Denmark, for these reasons.

To those of you who are suffering from this dreadful disease of cancer, I sincerely wish you the best.

[Maestro]

great post, although its very depressing and gross, its great.