Doctor stresses the importance of active living after battling cancer

It's a no-brainer that exercise is good for you, but if you've had cancer, a researcher says getting activity into your daily routine is even more important.

Dr. Angela Fong is a postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University. She was recently in Sudbury to talk about the importance of exercise.

"If exercise were this magical pill or a pill that we could bottle up, every doctor would be prescribing it to everyone," she said.

"However, unfortunately, exercise is a behaviour which means we as people have to work really hard to become active."

She says being active is especially important for cancer survivors.

"The treatments that they endure and everything you go through as a cancer survivor is so hard on the body," she said.

"Exercise is a way to help their bodies get better faster and it's also a non-medical behaviour."

Fong says it's not only good for your body, but your mind as well.

"Individuals who exercise and have had cancer and they exercise in a social setting actually end up increasing their physical activity levels," she said.

"They maintain their current physical activity levels if they don't increase [them]. On top of that, they increase social well-being so they feel better."

She acknowledges it can be difficult to get started if you're not used to being active. Her advice? Start slow and build from there.

"If it's just getting up off your couch, walking around your house, just walking around the block and coming back that is exercise," she said.

"Something is better than nothing."