The benefits of exercise in dealing with cancer are becoming more pronounced, according to recent research. A new study from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute shows that men with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer who exercised regularly less were than half as likely to die as patients who exercised the least. The findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine's December Issue.

In October, the British Medical Journal published a Danish study that cancer patients benefited from a supervised exercise program combining high intensity exercises with low intensity activities. That study concluded that a "supervised multimodal exercise intervention including high and low intensity components was feasible and could safely be used in patients with various cancers who were receiving adjuvant chemotherapy or treatment for advanced disease."

These findings made me think of one of my favorite stories of the year, about Team Survivor. The team is a group of women cancer survivors promoting exercise and awareness. Team Survivor's San Diego branch has a dragon boat team that learned to paddle in traditional Chinese boats on Mission Bay [pictured above]. "I was having a lot of pain in the arm and chest, around the area where I had surgery," Roberta Wells-Famula, director of education for the Old Globe theater, told The San Diego Union Tribune. "What I found was that doing the upper body motion actually helped the pain go away."

So, if anyone out there needed another reason to add regular exercise to their lists of New Year's resolutions, now they've got one. Let's hope this research helps many more people deal with and prevent illness through physical fitness.

[Image: Team Survivor]