Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases in the world, chemotherapy is effective under some conditions, but has too heavy side effects, and it is not effective to a considerable proportion of cases while the side effects are often life-threatening, drugs (not unhealthy addictive drugs mentioned in reference four, the drug in reference four only mean those makes people addictive but does no good to health, destroying health quickly) are not always available to improve the condition. However, sport is a potential treatment that is effective to cancer before the cancer is disseminated, this gets little attention but is true both in theory and practice. The physical activities that have moderate intensity and duration should have devastating effects on cancer cells, they make the body hot and reduce the nutritional resources that cancer cells can get, also renew the proteins in the body and improve one’s mood, cancer cells are hard to live when one is active, both in physical and mental activities. Influenza may also be an option that replaces drugs for disseminated cancer, for it stimulates one’s immune response such as fever which is adverse to cancer cells.
Keywords: Cancer, Chemotherapy, Sport, Influenza, Immunity
Cancer is a kind of malicious microorganisms which originates from normal cells in human body, but they changed to be a kind of independent creature that parasites in the human body due to many factors, the factors can be physical, chemical, biological, such as radiation, aflatoxin, and retrovirus, which have effects on DNA in human body cells.
Human body intrinsically has immunosurveillance that can clean cancer cells formed in human body every day, it is when such immune defense can’t eliminate the formed cancer cells, they escaped from human immunity, and live independently as tumor. As cancer cells have already been another kind of creature, just same as microorganisms that parasitize human, and normal immunity system can clean new formed cancer cells in human body every day, our immune system possibly still has potential to combat against the cancer formed by itself. Chemotherapy is normal therapy, it indeed can kill the cancer cells and sometimes can eradicate or at least reduce the tumor, help to make the patient healthy; however, chemotherapy has too many side effects, it can only be a treatment that is available under some special conditions, when the side effects can be resolved, such as organic food with good rest.
In considerable cases, chemotherapy can’t improve the health of patients, the patients will only suffer from side effects,1 it is not good to apply chemotherapy to people in such cases, especially to people who can’t bear the side effects. Heat makes cancer cells more sensitive to radiation or chemotherapy, their ability to repair themselves can be reduced and the body’s immune response to them is strengthened.2
Human’s immunity has potential to eradicate cancer cells by itself, and heat is not favorable to cancer cells; therefore, it is a good idea to enhance one’s physical activity moderately, keeping physical exercising habits in long term with moderate intensity and duration etc., to make the body hot regularly with no side effect and to enhance immunity in long term to prevent cancer or as a treatment against cancer that hasn’t disseminated, since the disseminated cancer should be same as infection of pathogenic microorganisms in the whole body, the immune system needs more resource in the body to combat against the cancer cells. There is dogma that sport will increase the risk of immunosuppression. One may have immunosuppression during the sport temporarily, since there is a lot of nutritional resource in body were used to activities related to the sport, immune system can’t get too much nutrition during such period, it is why one need rest when he get a cough or infected by COVID-19; however, sport activity has over-recovery effect, one can be healthier after moderate rest with enough nutrition, therefore one’s immunity can get better in long term. One can’t exercise when he was sick but can keep it as a habit in his normal state.
Studies show that sport does have significant improvement on health conditions about cancer, it can reduce the risk of cancer incidence and cancer related mortality, especially for life-time sport active individuals there is remarkable reduction of cancer risk.3 And there was also report of a case that a man recovered health after tremendous physical training, hearing what his girlfriend said, after he was diagnosed as lymphoma, becoming a muscle man by the way after 2 years of keeping exercising. It is a good habit to keep physical exercising regularly, in moderate amount, taking care of safety as well. It is well-known that such habit of sports can prevent many chronic diseases, but it is little known whether sport can prevent cancer. As a swimmer and runner who kept swimming and running for years, about 1 hour of aerobic sport per day on average, keeping physical exercising should be effective to destroy cancer cells according to experience after each time of exercising, it produces a great deal of heat and renew the proteins in the body, which should suppress cancer cells’ self-repairing and reduce the nutrition resource that cancer can utilize in the body, strengthen body’s immune response to cancer cells and possibly can undermine some cancer cells. Stronger immunity is also more possible to eradicate the cancer cells, if one keeps such physical exercising in long term, the cancer cells that once escaped from the immunosurveillance may be gradually eliminated by the body itself again.
Using the theory that one’s health is determined by mood,4 keeping exercising can also level up one’s pneuma, make each part of the body to be more harmonic with the whole body, this indicates the functions of each cell are healthier to the human body. Human has spirit to control the whole body, including each cell of it to operate in a healthy harmonic mode, cancer cells can be thought as some parts lost the host’s spirit and corrupted into some independent creatures, they are same as pathogenic microorganisms that invade the human body; therefore, one’s immunity is essential to combat the cancer, and proper drugs could be used if it can be no harm to the patient finally, i.e., the healthy effect is larger than the side effects, the patient can bear the bad effect and recover his health thereafter by himself.
Drugs are not always available for cancer patients, but sport is always available for cancer that is not disseminated. Cancer cells originated from normal human body cells that lost control from human’s spirit and became independent microorganisms that parasitize in the human body, using nutritional resources from the body while never work by themselves to benefit the body, same as corruption. Immunity is body’s ability to exclude non-self, cancer cells have already been not a part of the body, the body has ability to eliminate the cancer cells like other invading microorganisms by itself. The formation of tumor are cancer cells that escaped from the body’s immunity, it can be explained as one’s pneuma is not strong enough to exclude such non-self, using its immunity; therefore, by enhancing physical exercising to level up one’s pneuma, i.e., to make one happier and have higher level of dopamine, one’s immunity possibly can be capable to eliminate these cancer cells which once escaped from the immunosurveillance. Moreover, cancer cells rely on the body’s nutritional resources to live, when one is having more activities, the normal cells that were working will consume more resource while cancer cells can’t get more resource because they don’t work by themselves, this will be adverse for the living of cancer cells and may even eradicate them, cells can die after lacking nutrition for a period, especially under high temperature when the body is doing physical exercising, cancer cells may die more quickly when they lack nutrition and the body is hot. Sport should be an activity can destroy cancer, especially long duration sports, the effects of doing sport in long term, with moderate intensity and duration every day, should be devastating to cancer cells, sport is a good option for cancer patients when there is no available drug and the cancer is still not disseminated. The disseminated cancer is just same as some pathogenetic microorganisms invading the human body, immunity is essential for one to combat the cancer cells, and proper drug can also be used if its healthy effects are larger than side effects and the patient can bear the side effects, be beneficial for health finally. If there is no available drug, influenza may be a better option to replace such drug. Influenza may have effect that can combat against cancer, and it also triggers the immune response of the human body, one could have fever while resting in bed, no need to reduce the nutritional resource for immune system as doing sports. Such immune response may kill cancer cells disseminated over the body at the same time when the immune system is combating against the influenza, if the patient still can bear the side effects of influenza and his health condition can be better after recovered from an infection.
Sport is possibly a good treatment against cancer before the tumor is disseminated and influenza may be a better option for disseminated cancer if the patient can bear possible side-effects.5,6
Thanks to editors who waited me patiently and processed my manuscripts seriously. Thanks to my father who taught me a lot of medicine knowledge which I used to write this article. Thanks to my teacher Wang Zhaofeng who taught me about immunosurveillance.
This Opinion received no external funding.
Regarding the publication of this article, the author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
