6 Months or Less Diagnose for a Loved One.

Knowing how to offer comfort and support to a loved one who has a terminal illness can be challenging. What can you say or do? How can you help your loved one cope? How will you deal with your own grief? Get the facts about supporting a loved one who is terminally ill.My loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. How might our relationship change?Your relationship with your loved one might not necessarily change because he or she has a terminal illness. If you're concerned, try to build on your relationship's strengths. It's also important to be open to new possibilities. A loved one's terminal diagnosis might improve your relationship. Or unresolved conflicts might present new challenges.Remember that your loved one is still the same person and will still have the same needs and desires as he or she had before the terminal illness. Many people facing terminal illness want to be treated as normally as possible, without always focusing on the illness.How can I help my loved one cope with a terminal illness?Let your loved one know that you're willing to listen to his or her concerns — and never underestimate the value of your presence. Even if it feels as if you're not doing anything, your presence sends an important message. Don't, however, try to be a counselor.Is there a typical emotional process that a person who has a terminal illness experience?Dying isn't a science. Don't assume that a loved one who has a terminal illness is going to go through a methodical process of coming to terms with death. It might not happen that way.Acceptance or accommodation might be the most desirable outcome of the grieving process — learning to live as fully as possible while accepting the presence of a terminal illness.But does your loved one have to accept that he or she has a terminal illness? Does your loved one have to accept that he or she is going to die before he or she expected? No. There's no right or wrong way to come to terms with death.How do you help a loved one who's in denial about his or her impending death?Denial is an important coping mechanism. Your loved one might be in denial because the reality is too frightening, too overwhelming, or too much of a threat to his or her sense of control. A denial is a form of natural protection that can allow your loved one to let reality in bit by bit and continue living as he or she contemplates death.As long as denial isn't causing your loved one significant harm — such as causing him or her to seek out painful treatments of no therapeutic value — then denial isn't necessarily bad.Your loved one might be afraid of pain. Perhaps your loved one is afraid of losing control of his or her bodily functions, mind or autonomy. Your loved one might also fear failing family or become a burden to others.To provide emotional and spiritual support to your loved one, invite him or her to talk about his or her fears. Sometimes, however, it's easier for a dying person to share what he or she fears and explore it with someone other than a family member, such as a Bereavement Professional as Dr. Nicholas Losito, Ph.D.

Pre-Anticiptoray Care toward Cancer

For people diagnosed with cancer, the risk of cancer death falls as physical activity rises, according to a new analysis of more than 70 existing studies.

Researchers found the same holds true for everyone - supporting the current World Health Organization recommendation of moderate physical activity to combat the risk of chronic disease, they write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The WHO recommends two and a half hours of moderate exercise per week for some health benefit and five hours of moderate exercise per week for additional benefit. Half as much time per week of vigorous physical activity, like running, may confer the same benefits.

There are no specific recommendations for physical activity levels to combat cancer risk, although more activity has been tied to lower risk of death from breast, colorectal and prostate cancers, the authors note.

"Our results might help to update the recommendation concerning the advisable amount of physical activity to reduce cancer mortality," said senior author Dr. Li Liu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.

Doctors could start to incorporate physical activity into cancer treatments, Liu told Reuters Health by email.

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The researchers included 71 studies of physical activity and cancer death risk in the general population or among cancer survivors.

When they pooled these results, people in the general population who got at least two and half hours of moderate activity like brisk walking, per week, were 13 percent less likely to die from cancer than those with the lowest activity levels.

They also looked at data in terms of MET-hours, a measure of the relative amounts of energy expended in given activities and time spent doing them. Resting represents 1 MET, while a 4-MET activity like brisk walking uses four times as much energy, according to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Doing a 4-MET activity for 30 minutes equals 2 MET-hours.

Cancer survivors who completed at least 15 MET hours per week of physical activity were 27 percent less likely to die from cancer.

Exercise after cancer diagnosis reduced cancer death risk more than prediagnosis exercise, the study team notes.

Exercise may change the body's response to cancer, and those who exercise more may live healthier lifestyles in other ways as well, Liu said.

But many of the high-quality studies included in this analysis accounted for other healthy-lifestyle factors that may have played a role, Liu noted.

"Physical activity, mostly before diagnosis, and breast cancer mortality has been studied for decades, but only in the last 10 years or so have we been studying physical activity after diagnosis," said Patrick T. Bradshaw of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not part of the new study.

"Other cancers (e.g. colorectal, ovarian) have been studied much less than breast cancer, but some researchers there have also found a reduction in mortality associated with increasing physical activity levels," Bradshaw told Reuters Health by email.

So far, most studies have not been able to address which types of physical activity are most beneficial, he said.

Leisure time physical activity or recreational physical activity, but not occupational activity, is protective against cancer according to most research, Liu said.

"The take-home message here is encouraging - exercise may be beneficial even if started after diagnosis," Bradshaw said.

"Based on huge evidence of the inverse association between physical activity and cancer mortality, there is no doubt that cancer patients should be physically active," Liu said. "We suggest that cancer patients to consult their doctors about a personalized physical activity plan, including exercise time, exercise frequency, exercise mode and so on, which may help to promote the survival of patients without bringing too much physical burden."

Missing You Always

TELEGRAM FOR THE "SENSELESS TRAGEDY" AT SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Vatican City, 15 December 2012 (VIS) - A telegram of condolence was sent in the Holy Father's name by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. to Msgr. Jerald A. Doyle, diocesan administrator of Bridgeport, United States of America, following the assassination of 26 people - twenty children and six adults - by a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut.

Benedict XVI expressed his heartfelt grief and assured his closeness in prayer to the victims, their families and all those affected by this shocking event. "In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community with the spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love".