Movement During Cancer Care: How Physical Therapy Can Help Patients Preserve Strength, Function, and Connection
A cancer diagnosis can change the way a person experiences their body.
Walking to the mailbox may suddenly feel like a workout. A previously simple flight of stairs may require planning. Fatigue may not improve after a full night of sleep. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, and the cancer itself can affect strength, endurance, balance, mobility, sensation, breathing, continence, and confidence.
In these moments, movement should not become another demand placed on the patient.
It should become a conversation.
Physical therapy can help patients understand what their bodies are experiencing, identify meaningful functional goals, and develop a movement plan that is safe, adaptable, and connected to the rest of their cancer care.
The goal is not to tell every patient to “exercise more.”
The goal is to listen carefully and ask:
What does this person need movement to help them do today?
Diabetes, Movement, and the Factors That Change Care - A Physical Therapy Guide to Risk, Exercise, Foot Health, and Better Provider–Patient Connection for the Patient Managing Diabetes
Diabetes is not “just a blood sugar problem.” It affects energy, movement, sensation, circulation, healing, balance, confidence, and the everyday tasks that make people feel like themselves.
In the United States, diabetes and prediabetes are common. Current CDC data estimate that 40.1 million people in the U.S. have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes, and 115.2 million U.S. adults have prediabetes.
There are several types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually related to autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells and insulin deficiency. Type 2 diabetes is commonly related to insulin resistance with progressive loss of adequate insulin secretion. Prediabetes means blood glucose is elevated but not yet in the diabetes range.
Exercise is a major part of diabetes prevention and management. For many adults with or at risk for type 2 diabetes, movement can improve glucose control, cardiovascular health, strength, balance, quality of life, and confidence.
Physical therapists are not medication managers, endocrinologists, or dietitians. But PTs are essential members of the diabetes care team because diabetes changes how people move, heal, load tissue, tolerate activity, and participate in life.
For physical therapists, the goal is not simply to say, “Exercise more.” The goal is to help the patient answer: “What movement is safe for me, what is worth doing, and how do I build a routine I can actually keep?”
❤️ POTS, Dizziness, and a Racing Heart: Why the Conversation Matters
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, better known as POTS, is a condition involving symptoms of orthostatic intolerance. That means symptoms tend to show up or worsen when someone moves into an upright position, such as sitting or standing, and often improve when lying down.
Commonly reported symptoms can include lightheadedness, dizziness, palpitations, racing heart, fatigue, exercise intolerance, nausea, headache, “brain fog,” weakness, and feeling worse in heat or after prolonged standing.
Symptoms alone do not diagnose POTS.
Many conditions can look similar, including dehydration, anemia, thyroid disease, medication effects, cardiac rhythm problems, orthostatic hypotension, vasovagal syncope, infection, anxiety, deconditioning, and other medical concerns.
For patients, this means:
You are not “making it up,” and you also deserve a careful evaluation.
For providers, this means:
We should validate symptoms, screen thoughtfully, recognize when referral is needed, and help patients build safe, progressive strategies to improve function.