If we didn’t already need a good reason to ramp up our fitness program this year, several prominent organizations have just included exercise as a primary factor in cancer prevention and treatment.

The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the American Cancer Society, the Oncology Nursing Society, the Commission on Cancer and the Cancer Foundation for Life all recommend including exercise as part of a comprehensive cancer prevention program.

Extensive studies on the risk of 26 types of cancer involving nearly 1.5 million adults followed for 11 years have shown that exercise is associated with reduced risks of cancer, regardless of body size or smoking.

So far, research has shown that physical activity can reduce the risk of cancers of the colon, breast, esophagus, liver, stomach, kidney, and lung, among others. It may also lower the risk for adenocarcinoma, myeloid leukemia and myeloma.

“We also have numerous studies that show that exercise can also treat various types of cancer,” says Dr. Gabe Mirkin, a noted medical authority on sports medicine and its benefits.

The American College of Sports Medicine published an extensive review of research that found that exercise is associated with an astonishing 50 increased survival rate in patients treated for breast cancer. Exercise has also been linked with a whopping 70 percent risk reduction of high-grade, advanced or potentially fatal prostate cancers.

Research shows that exercise also combats cancer by:

• Helping cancer patients better tolerate and complete full-dose chemotherapy.
• Increasing tumor cells’ susceptibility to cancer therapies.
• Reducing heart damage from chemotherapy.
• Reducing the side effects of cancer-drug treatments including nausea, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
• Building bone strength and muscle mass.
• Markedly reducing arm swelling from extensive breast cancer surgery.

Despite these impressive benefits, Mirkin points out that most oncologists fail to recommend exercise to their patients.

“Oncologists have been trained to prescribe surgery, radiation and chemotherapy,” he tells Newsmax Health. “If doctors do not exercise regularly themselves, the chances are they know little or nothing about exercise and would not know how to prescribe a program to their patients.

“Furthermore, none of the doctors’ oncology societies have made specific, detailed recommendations on how cancer patients should start and maintain an exercise program.”

Mirkin points out that most doctors practice medicine in a manner “dominated by a fear of malpractice lawsuits” and a cancer patient who injures himself or herself during a prescribed exercise program is a potential lawsuit.

But there is a model program called FitSTEPS for Life that was started in 2001 as an evidence-based cancer rehabilitation program that charges no fees, is community-based, and is offered to cancer survivors from diagnosis onward.

Mirkin says that the program has grown by leaps and bounds where it is offered. But a cancer patient must be referred by a physician with specific recommendations on the patient’s limits for safe exercising.

“I can’t make personal recommendations for specific exercise programs because the amount of exercise a patient can do may be limited by their level of fitness, extent of the disease, treatment regimen and other variables,” Mirkin says.

In general, all exercisers — healthy or not — should follow these general rules:

Stop exercising when your muscles start to hurt, burn, or feel tight. If you keep on exercising your muscle fibers can start to tear and run out of stored sugar and energy supply. Always listen to your body.

Take the day off when your muscles feel tight or hurt even after you have warmed up for five minutes or more. It’s normal for muscles to feel sore when you get up first thing in the morning but they should feel better after you exercise for five minutes or more.

Stop exercising immediately if you feel increased soreness or pain in one spot which means the muscle may be about to tear or go into a spasm.

Dr. Herman Kattlove, a Los Angeles based oncologist and former spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, tells Newsmax Health that he’s thrilled that so many prestigious medical organizations have recognized exercise as a valuable weapon in the war against cancer.

“I love it,” he says. “I have always felt that exercise reduces cancer risk and now we have the research to back this up. And the corollary to this evidence is that exercise, along with following a healthy eating plan, may also help reduce the single most important cancer risk before and after diagnosis and that is obesity.”