REACH - Research in Exercise And Cancer Health

Latest Episodes:

Ep 23: Designing an exercise program for cancer patients and survivors Sep 18, 2017

Show notes

In this episode I dive a little deeper into some of the considerations (both cancer and non-cancer related) for putting together a program for a cancer patient or survivor. I chat about how the cancer type, treatment and point along the cancer continuum can affect the exercise prescription, and the goals of that phase of training.

For more about us go to www.reachbeyondcancer.com or follow me on twitter @CiaranFairman.

Ep 22: Why the standard of cancer care sucks Sep 11, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, I chat about one of the areas of cancer care can be improved in changing how we deliver information about exercise for cancer patients and survivors. A pamphlet telling them to exercise isn't enough, we need to do better.

Ep 21: Dr. Robert O'Connor: Head of Research at the Irish Cancer Society Sep 05, 2017

Show notes

We chat about what Rob's role as the Head of Research and the type of research the Irish Cancer Society funds. We also talk about how to sift through common cancer myths and how to improve the communication of the scientific evidence to combat fear mongering and quacks.

To hear what the Irish Cancer Society is up to check out www.cancer.ie or follow Robert on Twitter @DrRobertOConnor. Be sure to check out the Decoding Cancer talks on Irish Cancer Society facebook page for great free information on all things cancer.

Show notes:

3:30 – Robert's background and what he does as head of research as the Irish Cancer Society

5:40 – The Irish Cancer Society's four areas of intervention

8.40 - How has the public's awareness of risk factors for cancer changed and what impact has the internet/social media had?

13.05 – Scare tactics in spreading information about cancer risk.

18.30 – How to improve the communication of scientific evidence in areas of cancer.

33.30 – Common cancer myths debunked: cancer is not a single disease, modern life doesn't cause cancer etc.

45:00 – Lifestyle behaviors and cancer risk – don't take it so serious. Having flexibility to improve quality of life.

51:00 – Some of the more important areas of inquiry to improve cancer care in Ireland.

56:00 – Decoding Cancer – Free talks to the general public about all areas of cancer research

Ep 20: Justin Brown: Research in exercise, diet and colorectal cancer. Aug 29, 2017

Show notes

Justin is a research fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute. In this episode, we chat about colorectal cancer and how diet and exercise can help patients and survivors. We also chat about some important considerations for working with this population, such as working around ostomy bags and how to modify exercise accordingly.

Show Notes

0:30 – Colorectal cancer – What it is and what are some modifiable risk factors.

5:00 – Treatment of colorectal cancer and common side effects.

8:00 – Staging of cancer and their effects on the course of treatment.

12:00 – Making sense of a messy field – recommendations for dietary patterns to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

18.00 – How physical activity can help colorectal cancer patients and survivors.

24.00 – What might be happening biologically with exercise in colorectal cancer patients to stop cancer from growing.

38.00 – Side effects of treatment unique to colorectal cancer and common modifications to exercise.

47:00 – Exercise considerations with an ostomy bag.

49.00 – Cancer and its treatment don't make exercise dangerous, they just provide scenarios to problem solve and modify exercise accordingly.

51.00 – What are the barriers to establishing exercise as a standard of cancer care.

59.00 – Advice to colorectal cancer patients/survivors looking to start an exercise program.

Nicole Culos Reed Pt 2 – Research translation & educating health professionals. Aug 21, 2017

Show notes

In part 2 of our interview, myself and Nicole chat about one of the biggest areas of improvement in our field, improving the communication of our research. We chat about establishing relationships with physicians and oncologists along with educating health professionals on working the cancer patients and survivors.

See what Nicole's up to at www.thrivehealthservices.com or follow her on twitter @NCulosReed. Find out more about us at www.reachbeyondcancer.com or find me on twitter @ciaranfairman.

Ep 18: Kylee Sacksteder Part 2: Residency during treatment, Jimmy John & Exercise. Aug 14, 2017

Show notes

If you haven't listened to part 1 of Kylee's interview, go check out episode 15. Kylee is in the final year of her dermatology residency. Having moved to Columbus a few years ago, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In part 2 of the interview, we chat about how Kylee balanced her residency whilst going through treatment, how she modified her exercise during treatment and what it was like trying to eat during chemo. We have an important discussion about the meat to sandwich ratio at Jimmy John's, along with Kylee's perspective on keto during cancer treatment.

A huge thanks to Kylee for sharing her story! For more cancer and health related topics, find me on twitter @ciaranfairman, or go to reachbeyondcancer.com to find out more about what we do.

Show notes

4.00 – Balancing cancer treatment and residency coursework.

7.00 – When the more pronounced side effects of chemo (such as hair loss) started to kick in.

10.40 – Reflecting on the journey through treatment and her mindset throughout.

16.00 – Modifying exercise during treatment.

19.00 – Getting a blood clot and receiving treatment.

22.00 – The challenges of being a physician with worried parents.

26.30 – Listening to your body with exercise during treatment.

29.00 – Trying to eat during treatment and some of the challenges with it. Very important discussion surrounding Jimmy John's meat to sandwich ratio.

32.00 – Kylee's perspective on ketogenic diet during cancer treatment.

34.00 – Not getting special treatment and how it was important to Kylee that people treated her "normally".

38.00 – Some of the side effects a year out of treatment.

42.00 – Kylee's perspective on exercising during treatment and how to establish exercise as a standard of care. Making exercise fit a person.

Ep 17: Sami Mansfield – Crossfit & cancer/ "cancer wellness for life" programs educating patients and clinical staff. Aug 07, 2017

Show notes

Sami Mansfield is a cancer exercise specialist and founder of Cancer Wellness for Life. She provides educational content about cancer wellness to clinical staff in hospitals and organizations, along with patients and survivors. Sami also runs "BUILD" a functional program run through a crossfit gym in Kansas, that is designed to combat treatment related side effects and improve the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors. In this episode, we chat about Sami's programs, how she started collaborating with hospitals and what the BUILD program does for cancer patients and survivors.

Find out more about Sami at www.cancerwellnessforlife.com, @cancerwellnessforlife on Instagram and @bewellwithsami on twitter.

Keep up with us at reachbeyondcancer.com or follow me on twitter @ciaranfairman.

Sami Show notes

3:30 – Sami's background & how she got started working with cancer patients and survivors.

6.00 – Cancer terminology is like learning a new language.

8.45 – How moving into survivorship can be a really challenging period.

10.00 – Challenges with research based exercise prescription & getting physician buy-in.

15.30 – Physical activity guidelines is not on physicians, it's on exercise physiologists.

19.30 – What do we mean when we say strength training for cancer patients. The risk of inactivity by far outweighs the risks of exercises.

25.00 – Improving the translation of research – moving beyond professionals talking to each other.

26.00 – Sami's Cancer Wellness for Life program: what it is and what she does.

40.00 – 5 year survival rates have improved across a lot of cancer - but we care about quality of life, not just quantity.

44:00 – Sami's BUILD program and working with cancer patients and survivors.

52.00 – The community aspect of BUILD and crossfit.

56.00 – People looking to join the BUILD program – what to expect.

61.00 Advice for professionals getting into the area.

Ep 16 – Dr. Trista Manikowske: Cancer-related fatigue, phased rehabilitation in oncology Jul 31, 2017

Show notes

Trista graduated from the University of Northern Colorado, where she spent a lot of her time working in the Rocky Mountain Cancer Rehabilitation Institute. In this episode, we chat about Trista's PhD dissertation where she looked at the difference between perceptual fatigue and muscular fatigue to try and get a deeper understanding of cancer related fatigue.

We also spend a lot of time chatting about a phased approach to cancer-rehabilitation. This approach, divides the rehabilitation into different stages based on where the patient is during their treatment and how they are responding to the rehab protocol. This is some really cool stuff that the RMCRI have been working on for a while and may very well serve as a model of cancer rehab in the future.

You can find Trista on facebok here or email here at tolson@stcloudestate.edu for more infor on what's she's up to. Follow me on twitter @CiaranFairman to hear about more things exercise and cancer.

Enjoy!

Show notes

6:05 What is cancer related fatigue?

7:45 What causes cancer related fatigue?

10:45 Does cancer type have any effect on fatigue?

12:00 The difference between normal tiredness and fatigue

13:00 How exercise can help alleviate fatigue

18:10 Why it is important to educate patients about the symptoms they will face from treatment

21:00 Trista's Dissertation

30:00 Phased approach to cancer rehab

32:15 What does a phase one patient's exercise program look like?

37:15 Moving to phase two

44:00 Dealing with muscular imbalances and other complications from treatment

49:00 Phase three

51:00 The importance of working towards independence

53:45 Frequently asked questions by patients as they start to do more on their own

56:15 Common misconceptions about cancer and exercise

57:15 Trista's advice for upcoming professionals and for patients/survivors

Ep 15 - Kylee Sacksteder (Part 1), Physician, Hodgkin's Lymphoma survivor, Alarm clock snoozer. Jul 24, 2017

Show notes

Kylee is in the final year of her dermatology residency. Having moved to Columbus a few years ago, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We chat about how she balanced her cancer treatments, along with planning a wedding at the same time!

Kylee's background training as a physician gave her a unique perspective on her diagnosis and treatment and actually ended up influencing some of her treatment decisions, including avoiding a bone marrow biopsy! Her training also allowed her to give a really clear description of some of the common cancer treatments, what they are and why you need them. We have an important talk about the need for patients to continuously ask questions of their physicians to make sure they understand what they're going through.

A huge thanks to Kylee for sharing her story!

For more cancer and health related topics, find me on twitter @ciaranfairman, or go to reachbeyondcancer.com to find out more about what we do.

Show notes

4.00 – Kylee's journey through med school and her diagnosis.

7.45 – The power of the snooze button – We talk about people who use the snooze button vs. people who don't. We talk strategies to optimize morning snoozing.

9.30 – Kylee finding a lump in her throat and getting it checked out.

12.15 – Getting two diagnoses – The day Kylee got her CT results and the day she got her biopsy results.

21.00 – How her training as a physician affected her response to the diagnosis and treatment decisions.

23.40 – NCCN guidelines on cancer treatment and how they influence treatment decisions.

27.40 – Having to work following her diagnosis.

28.40 – Going through with treatment decisions – Pre-chemotherapy tests and decisions.

31.40 – Patients need to ask more questions about their treatment decisions.

33.40 – Going through treatment – what Kylee's chemo looked like and how it went.

41.40 – Balancing chemo and residency as a physician.

Ep 14. Patricia Sheehan: Cancer-related fatigue & cancer rehabilitation in Ireland. Jul 17, 2017

Show notes

Patricia is a PhD researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland. Patricia is finishing up her dissertation, where she looked at a physical activity program to improve symptoms of cancer-related fatigue.

In this episode, we focus on cancer-related fatigue, what it is, how it's different from regular tiredness and how it can affect different people. We chat about Patrica's dissertation work and how physical activity can improve fatigue. We also chat about the state of cancer rehabilitation in Ireland and what services are out there for cancer patients/survivors.

You can find Patricia on twitter @FERNTRI or through email at patricia.sheehan@postgrad.wit.ie

You can also find the MedEx program in Waterford here: https://www.wit.ie/schools/health_sciences/medexwit.

Find me on twitter at @CiaranFairman or go to reachbeyondcancer.com to find out more about what we do.

This episode doesn't have an intro, I came down with a devastating case of the man-flu over the weekend, so I'm not able to speak to put one up. This episode is sponsored by Lampstrong.com. The LampStrong Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Major League Soccer Goalkeeper and Stage Four Hodgkin Lymphoma Survivor Matt Lampson. The mission of The LampStrong Foundation is to provide difference-making financial, emotional and motivational support to cancer patients and families in all the stages of cancer treatment and recovery as well as to fund proven cancer researchers. For more information and regular updates on the LampStrong Foundation follow the LampStrong Foundation on Facebook or visit LampStrong.com.

1.00 – What is Cancer Related Fatigue, what are the symptoms, how long does it last, what causes it etc.

5.00 – Where should exercise advice for cancer patients/survivors come from?

7.00 – Different dimensions of cancer-related fatigue, whether its emotional, cognitive or physical fatigue, and how those patterns fluctuate during treatment.

11.29 – The transition from active treatment to survivorship and how patients/survivors can feel lost and isolated.

15.35 – Patricia's study looking at physical activity and cancer-related fatigue.

28.45 – Fit and active cancer patients – dealing with exercise tolerance going down.

36.00 – Turning her research into a public service program at Waterford Institute of Technology.

44.00 – State of cancer rehab in Ireland. Where the field is and what is available for patients/survivors.

51.00 – The influence of policy on establishing exercise oncology as a standard of care.

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