Patients share how exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle habits became important parts of their prostate cancer journeys, helping them manage treatment side effects, maintain strength, and support recovery. They emphasize that staying active, following medical guidance, and taking a proactive approach to overall health can improve quality of life and help patients regain confidence during and after treatment.
Phillip Lavender:
In my research, I found out that dieting is a big part of the prognosis of prostate cancer. I also learned that certain cultures, for example, Africans in the continent of Africa, prostate cancer is not really known in that continent. The same thing with the Asian people and it may have something to do with their diet. Understanding that more about it would have probably helped us help people or helped me in the situation because we have all sorts of fatty diet here in this country so that was a big eye-opening for me.
Scott Evenson:
Now, the only thing I'd say too is of course I gained a lot of weight during this... Pandemic didn't help just because food was harder to get, family was going to the grocery store for me, I wasn't making great choices. The other thing my doctor, not my doctor I have now but the initial doctor said, "Oh, you can't get hurt. You can't fall. You can't do this. You can't do that." That would be my only regret is I've kept up my mountain biking and my exercise because I had let that go. Talking to my doctor now, he's just like, "Scott, just do it. Do it," and I've only had one accident on my mountain bike at one point so I'm not too worried about it. But yeah, I think this next summer, I'm going to get back on the bike.
Dr. Michael Holick:
I was also concerned, of course, about the muscle function and loss. And so, by being in the physical therapy, basically weightlifting twice a week, I continue to lift the same amount of weight I did before I started therapy. So my message to you is that if you intervene and you are aggressive in your health, that you don't have to experience a lot of these side effects that are usually associated with androgen deprivation therapy and radiation therapy.
John Gritzmacher:
I had never worked out in a gym before. So I joined the Y and we found a nice little center that... Mostly, it's older people that are there for working out but I've been working on the machines, lifting. My wife and I had, ever since I retired six years ago, we had been walking at least three days a week trying to get our 10,000 steps in. So this was just a different type of workout but I really found that I enjoy doing it and I have a big incentive for continue doing my workouts. I do try to walk more but it's not as regimented as I had been. Usually in the summer, I don't do it that much. But once the winter comes, then I make sure that I go and make sure that I walk because it's harder to get out and be moving in the winter.
Gogs Gagnon:
I was quite fit before my surgery. After surgery, I realized that I wasn't able or I was recommended to not do certain things for the first six weeks after surgery. I believe no matter what treatment is offered, there is some kind of recovery period recommended and it's very important to follow doctor's advice. If you're not supposed to lift more than five pounds or you're not supposed to climb stairs or not supposed to carry groceries or whatever the rules are, it's very important to follow them.
So here I am trying to get back into my fitness level by going out for walks. I'm glad my son was with me because I had became very dizzy and very weak as I was pushing myself too hard on a walk and I actually started to collapse and my son was there to grab me before I fell on the pavement. So just very lucky to have the support but it's important to follow the doctor's advice on recovery. It's... Whatever treatment you have, there is going to be some kind of recovery period. Just follow the advice of the doctor.
Glenn Ritchie:
Prior to the diagnosis, my wife and I had led a pretty active lifestyle. I'm an avid mountain biker. I would ride three or four times a week. We go to the gym together three times a week, kayak on weekends. We travel a lot. So my concern with any treatment was, "Would I be able to get back to those levels?" Surprisingly, what's really neat is that getting through the treatment and being focused on taking care of myself, I'm actually probably in better shape now than I was before the treatment. That was a decision to stay healthy. I knew going in that the surgery would be easier if I was not overweight, if I was healthy, if I took care of myself. I knew coming out that I... or at least I feel like I have a better chance of not getting it again if I take care of myself and I eat right and I stay active.
Brian McCloskey:
In terms of managing the side effects, the one thing I can control is just trying to stay as physically fit as possible, eating well, of course, and getting rest. So I do try to work out as much as I can. I run, I surf, I do these things, and I just believe that exercise has always been a key component of my life. It's the one thing I can control. The way that I think about it is that it not only helps me to get through my existing treatment, but it also helps to keep me strong because I know that the treatment coming up after what I'm currently on is going to be even less tolerable than what I'm currently experiencing.
So, for example, I'm going to have probably surgery here in another three weeks. Well, that's going to be my third surgery. A little apprehensive about that. It will not be robotic but I want to make sure that I'm in good cardiovascular health and that I'm strong and I'm fit so that I can recover as quickly as possible. Because after I go through surgery again, I've got other drugs that are coming my way that also are going to have probably higher risk profiles than what I'm currently on. And so I just want to make sure that I am as physically fit as possible to take on the side effects from these drugs. So it's basically physical fitness. I eat well. I think I've done a good job with diet, I think, throughout my 57 years. Those are the main things though that I focus on.
Mike Hoppel:
It's 11:30 at night and that... that I warm up. I walk up about half a mile up to this top of this hill where I start and I'm doing my exercises and marching looking like some silly toy soldier. Marching up and down, breathing real weird, making weird sounds. And so, I get up to the top and then I just asked myself and said, "Are you ready to run?" and I am. I'm not hurting, I'm loosened up, and I take off. I have no goals in mind. I don't have a... I'm not going to say I'm going to run a mile. I don't put a time on it. My goal was to run between about four and a half and six miles every day and I came really close to that. I get to run around a lake and it's well lit.
Lots of things happened up there. It's just... It motivated me beyond... I just couldn't tell you how it motivated me but I would be running around the lake. An example one time, I was really exhausted because I had a very hard weekend with the grandkids were over. I was exhausted but I had to run and I really didn't want to run. And so, I'm running around here and this was about 2:00 in the morning and this car drives by me and I watch the cars because I'm afraid... I'm running down the middle of the road and so I'm afraid someone's going to run over me.
So this car rides by me and about 10 minutes later, he drives back around me. Well, that scared me because why would this person go around twice? He rolled his window down and I didn't know him and he pulled over and he said, "I just wanted to tell you that I see you running out of here this time of the morning because he works at night." He said, "I went home. I got dressed. I'm on my way to the gym. I'm going to go work out." He said, "You motivated me to get up and go out and run." Well, that motivated me to finish my run.
And so, that was... It helped him but it helped me more to finish my run but I run them very frequently early in the morning and... But somehow, either morning or evening, I would get all of my runs in. If I get two hours of sleep, it's the same as eight of other people and four hours is normally what I get. Five is fantastic. It doesn't happen very often. So I'm okay not getting a lot of consistent sleep but it takes me almost 10 hours to get enough sleep to be charged long enough to work at work and I'm on my feet all day long. I never stop moving there. It's about 10 to 12 miles I walk at work.