That's Fit

It's important for everyone to have an active, healthy lifestyle. For those who have beat cancer, it's possibly even more important. More than 10 million Americans have survived the disease -- but the impact it had on their health puts them at higher risk for conditions such as heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and a reduced quality of life... not to mention the risk of cancer recurrence.

Exercise, eating healthfully, and not smoking can help counteract that increased risk. But, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), too few cancer survivors adopt a healthier lifestyle. Though approximately 75% of cancer survivors do stop smoking, the ACS isn't seeing as good of an improvement with healthy eating and physical activity.

The ACS recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day (at least five days a week) and a diet that includes at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Less than 48% of survivors are meeting the exercise requirements and less than 20% are eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.

Recent research from The Netherlands concluded that kids who survived childhood cancer end up having above-average numbers of body abnormalities.

What is neat about this study is the number of participants -- 1,100 of them. In the observed group were 898 long-term survivors of childhood cancers along with 175 kids that has recently been diagnosed with cancer.

The two groups allowed researchers to have two separate groups to compare to a 1,000-strong non-cancer kid's group who were also checked for body abnormalities. It's refreshing for a study to have all its ducks in a row, as I'd classify this one.

Bodily oddities such as limbs that differ in length and spine curvatures were mentioned in the research, and the report mentioned that cancer and body abnormalities may have the same genetic causes. This means that identifying and understanding body mishaps may clue the medical industry into those predisposed to cancer at earlier stages compared to today.

The American Cancer Society said today that roughly 7.6 million people will die globally this year alone from all the various cancer types. The topper? Lung cancer (driven mostly by smoking), which will cause 975,000 male and 376,000 female deaths worldwide.

But that's not all. 12.3 million people will develop cancer in 2007 as well. Are those number high? Depends on how you look at things. The way the western lifestyle promotes sedentary lifestyles and increasingly chemically-laden foods -- along with tobacco use -- I'm amazed the number is not way higher than the ACA's figures.

But, old age may have something to do with it as well, according to American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal. The older you become, the more prone you become to developing cancer.

Children that have childhood bouts with cancer -- but beat the condition and end of progressing normally into adulthood, may have less healthier lives overall, with more than a third of childhood cancer survivors developing disabling or even life-threatening diseases and conditions later in life.

In the largest study of patient outcomes ever published, researchers followed more than 10,000 pediatric cancer survivors that were diagnosed and treated during a nearly 20-year period through the 1970s and 1980s.

In what is already being called the "dark side of cancer victory", it's estimated that 80% of children treated for cancer in the U.S. survive due to recent cancer treatments -- including chemotherapy.