umbilical Hernia

Anyone have advice for exercising to lose weight with an umbilical hernia? If I can get my weight down I may not need surgery for it.

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Are there lifestyle changes that can help my cancer recovery?

Posted July 03, 2013, 2:00 am

I’m a cancer survivor. Should I be following special guidelines for diet and exercise?

Advances in cancer treatment and earlier detection are allowing more people to live longer after a cancer diagnosis. Today, more than 12 million Americans are cancer survivors. And many of them look to diet and exercise to help prevent cancer recurrence, live longer or just feel better.

Recently, the American Cancer Society (ACS) reviewed and summarized the scientific evidence about the role of diet and exercise for cancer survivors. They found that the same things that prevent cancer from developing in the first place also help keep it from coming back. The ACS published its findings in a report called “Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors.”

The ACS found that to reduce the chance of cancer returning and increase the chance of surviving, cancer-free, after a cancer diagnosis, survivors should:

Achieve and maintain a healthy weight;Get enough physical activity (at least 150 minutes per week);Eat a healthy diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruits and whole grains;

The ACS also provided specific advice for survivors of a variety of major cancers. I’ve put a summary of the guidelines below.

The ACS also advised:

Cancer survivors should work with a registered dietitian who has special certification in cancer care. He or she can provide specific, evidence-based advice.Many cancer survivors have trouble taking in enough calories each day. Eating smaller and more frequent meals can help. Or try special fortified or nutrient-dense foods.Use dietary supplements cautiously. Taking more than the recommended daily amounts (RDA) of vitamins and minerals does not improve treatment outcomes or long-term survival. In fact, it can interfere with some cancer treatments. For example, taking a beta-carotene supplement may encourage the growth of lung cancer.Exercise can help fight fatigue, keep you functioning and improve your quality of life. Discuss when to start exercising, and how much, with your doctor.Obesity appears to increase the risk of breast (and possibly other) cancer recurrence. Losing weight and keeping it off can help improve survival.

When some of my patients hear advice like the ACS has given, they are skeptical. To them, cancer is a powerful force, and it seems unlikely that a healthy lifestyle could do much to tame it. I tell them that the advice is supported by large and well-done scientific studies. There is little doubt from those studies, for example, that survivors of breast cancer who are overweight have a worse prognosis than those of normal weight. Or that those who exercise regularly have a better prognosis than those who don’t.

We even are beginning to understand why. A research study was published recently which showed regular exercise leads to hormonal changes that discourage the growth of breast cancer cells. It’s not anecdotal: It’s science.

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exercise

What's a good exercise routine for building overall strength and stamina? Please help!! No motivation. :(

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My opinion on why it is so hard to lose the last few lbs.

I went over to this calculator:

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expend iture-advanced

and plugged in my stats. With the exercise I do, I should maintain my weight of 69kg on about 2280 calories a day.

I wound it down to the weight I wouldn't mind being: 64kg. The maintenance number went to around 2180. Only 100 calories difference, right? Not much at all. with a deficit of 500, I should get there in 2 months.

Well, the thing is, the human body is very *very* good at adapting. 100 calories is nothing. If I'm low on energy, I fidget less, quite unconsciously. I don't get up and walk around as often, I group things to carry upstairs, rather than dash up and down, I sleep a little more. I make the DH make the breakfast and the tea. I slow down in ways that are very difficult to measure on a simple TDEE calculator with windy dials.

This makes me feel that, if you are already a healthy weight, hitting a specific weight target is uncertain and possibly pointless, quite apart from daily fluctuations. The very fact that you are restricting intake will reduce TDEE. You can't get there fast. -500 cals can be too high a deficit. All you can do is eat a healthy amount and move a healthy amount *consistently* and asymptotically settle around a certain point. Where will it be? Who knows? It depends on what you eat, what you do, and your eating history.

ps: I've read that for some people, the above calculator gives high TDEE values, but I think this actually illustrates the point.

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Failing

I've been doing so well during the day and end up failing myself come night. I always get the munchers sitting around watching tv after the day is done. It's so frustrating to know that I had lost 30 pounds last year and have gained it all back so easily.. I feel like I have no support.

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recovery success stories

I know this is not a healthy website to frequent when in anorexia recovery, so I try to be vigilant about avoiding triggering threads. That being said, I am determined to beat this horrible disease and live a REAL life.

One thing that has been helping me fight lately is by forcing myself to have positive thoughts. About myself, my future, the world in general... As I continue to seek health and freedom, I would appreciate any positive encouragement, particularly success stories. I feel like we hear SO much about people who relapse and relapse or fall in to different unhealthy behaviors. Can anyone out there give me some hope and positivity?

On another note, I feel like all I hear from long-time restrictors is how eventually they become bingers. Is this inevitable? It scares me to think that I will go from one horrible extreme to another horrible extreme. I'm hoping my recovery will take me to normalcy and balance. Is this possible? Thanks in advance for the support.

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Sharp Rise in Drug Overdoses Among U.S. Women: CDC

More now die from prescription medications than from car crashes, study finds

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- The rate of fatal overdoses of prescription painkillers and other drugs among U.S. women quadrupled between 1999 and 2010, federal officials reported Tuesday.

Long thought of as primarily a male problem, drug addiction is increasingly affecting women, and the new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 42 women in the United States die each day from prescription drug overdoses.

"Prescription drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed in women," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said during a noon press conference. "Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are dying from overdoses at rates we have never seen before."

The CDC said that nearly 48,000 women died of overdoses from any form of prescribed drug between 1999 and 2010. The annual death rate for women from drug overdoses now surpasses that of car crash deaths, the agency said.

Emergency room visits for abuse or overdose have also increased dramatically, Frieden added.

Much of this increase is due to the widespread abuse of prescription opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin or Vicodin, which have been more frequently prescribed in the past decade.

"The increase in opioid overdoses and opioid overdose deaths is directly proportional to the increase in prescribing," Frieden said.

These drugs should be reserved for treating severe pain, as occurs with debilitating illnesses such as cancer. "But in many other situations, the risks [to patients] far outweigh the benefits," he said. "Prescribing an opioid may be condemning a patient to lifelong addiction and life-threatening complications."

Although men are still more likely to die from painkiller overdoses, since 1999 the percentage increase in deaths was greater among women -- 400 percent in women compared with 265 percent in men, the CDC said.

Other statistics, based on 2010 data:

Suicides from these drugs accounted for 34 percent of all suicides among women, compared with 8 percent among men.More than 940,000 women were seen in emergency departments for drug misuse or abuse.More than 6,600 women, or 18 women every day, died from a prescription painkiller overdose.Narcotic painkillers accounted for four times more deaths among women than deaths linked to cocaine and heroin combined. More than 200,000 emergency department visits were for misuse or abuse of these drugs among women -- about one every three minutes.

"This is a major public health concern and it's getting worse every year," said Dr. Yves Duroseau, chairman of emergency services at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "People are losing their lives unnecessarily.

"There needs to be more public awareness of the detrimental effects of these medications," he added. "And there needs to be more support to get people off narcotic painkillers and help them with their dependence."

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