The Vital Role of Social Connections in Cancer Prevention and Recovery

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Could your social life be as vital to your health as diet and exercise? I explore the profound impact of social interactions on cancer prevention and recovery in this engaging episode of "In the Rising."

With insights from Andrea Rice's thought-provoking article in healthline, and expert research from the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Magazine, we highlight the incredible benefits of genuine face-to-face connections.

Join me as we celebrate the five enriching years of this podcast and introduce a new chapter with Rising Within Life Coaching—a venture dedicated to supporting your wellness journey. 

Thank you for being part of this journey, and let's continue to uplift and inspire each other towards a healthier future!

Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!

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Episode Transcript

Bettina M Brown (00:04):
Hello and welcome to In the Rising a
health and wellness podcast forthose going through and those
supporting those going throughcancer.
My name is Bettina Brown andI'm board certified in physical
therapy, wound care andlymphedema, and you know, for me
cancer is very personal.
It's affected my friends, myimmediate and my not so

(00:24):
immediate family, and thereforeI created this podcast and
fitafterbreastcancercom toaddress the multiple dimensions
of our lives during and afterrecovery.
Hello and welcome to October2024, breast Cancer Awareness
Month.
It's an unfortunate thing thatwe have to have a whole month

(00:48):
dedicated to this, because itexists, but I'm so glad that we
have the focus, the attentionand also the money to really
bring to light all the thingsthat affect people with breast
cancer.
Now, as I was reading an articleby Andrea Rice, who published
this on October 4th andfact-checked by Dr Jill

(01:11):
Salady-Schulman, she talkedabout how healthy diet and
lifestyles help reduce breastcancer risk, which are things we
kind of already know about.
But there was one thing thatstood out on her bullet points
that made me take a pause and asecond moment glance and a
little more research theimportance of socializing with

(01:32):
others.
So I did look a little bit moreinto it and I found some
articles by the Mayo ClinicMinute and Harvard Magazine, and
both of these highlighted thevery important component of
socializing for your mind andyour body.
Not only is the lack ofsocializing just as helpful to

(01:55):
the body as 19 cigarettes a day,meaning it's not helpful at all
, but you do very much need tohave some interaction.
It's not just important forloneliness and to get rid of
those feelings of loneliness, itliterally sharpens your memory
and your cognitive skills.
It increases your sense ofhappiness and well-being and

(02:17):
very well make a difference inthe length of time that you live
.
And so, yes, technology ishelpful, but let's face it,
facebook scrolling, instagramscrolling is not connecting and
it's not really socializing inthe same manner as being in the
same room with someone.
So there are a lot ofprotective effects of just

(02:39):
socializing in general.
Now, there isn't a you have totalk for 20 minutes on the phone
, face to face, anything of thatnature of how much socializing.
But everyone knows we all havedifferent levels of needs, right
.
For some people myself in thatcategory I am very good with a

(03:00):
lot of alone time, but I reallylove to see my friends from time
to time and I really love to goout and have a great dinner and
I really love to go out andhike and just talk about
whatever.
And other people needsocialization almost on a daily
basis, right Like throughout theday, all day, all day long.
Knowing where you stand on that, but just realizing that that

(03:20):
time when you get to laugh withyour friends, when you get to
have some moments to just beyourself in the presence of
others, not only does that feelgood but it actually does a lot
for your health and it reducesyour cancer risk.
So if you've had cancer before,if it's in your family, add
time with your friends to yourlist of to-dos and with that.

(03:45):
That is all for today's episodeand I want to thank you again
for your time.
And thank you.
This is almost my five-yearanniversary of In the Rising
podcast.
I'm really excited and I thinkfor all the people who have
listened to this podcast throughthe time, and I have a special
announcement I have just startedRising Within Life Coaching and

(04:06):
I will have that posted below.
I'm so excited to start thisnew adventure.
Thank you again and until nexttime, let's keep building one
another up.
Thank you.