{"id":54662,"date":"2018-10-29T15:28:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T19:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=54662"},"modified":"2022-10-26T10:09:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T14:09:12","slug":"getting-physical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2018\/10\/29\/getting-physical\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting physical"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Karen Wonders, director of the Wright State University Sports Science Program, founded the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, which provides free exercise, nutritional guidance and fellowship to people battling cancer.<\/p><\/div>\n

She suspected it all along, but it really became convincing when she was doing research for her Ph.D. in exercise physiology \u2014 that people with cancer should exercise.<\/p>\n

Exercise not only strengthens the body but is also a tonic that helps with fatigue, depression and anxiety \u2014 conditions that often go hand-in-hand with cancer and cancer treatment, says Karen Wonders, director of the Wright State University Sports Science Program<\/a> and founder of the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps with everything,\u201d said Wonders. \u201cWe can point to our research and show that most of the people we work with get stronger during their chemotherapy. Their hearts get stronger, their muscles get stronger, they have more endurance. They\u2019re not as affected by chemotherapy or radiation. And that\u2019s so encouraging to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 2010, Maple Tree Alliance<\/a>\u00a0is a nonprofit that provides free exercise, nutritional guidance and fellowship to people battling cancer. From a small office in downtown Dayton that served about 50 patients a year, it has spread to eight hospitals and is on the verge of having a total of 20 centers in Ohio and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vision for Maple Tree is it would be a national organization,\u201d said Wonders.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are Maple Tree centers at Soin Medical Center, Greene Memorial Hospital, Kettering Cancer Center, Miami Valley Hospital South, Upper Valley Medical Center and in Wilmington and Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

An evangelist for exercise, Wonders has been doing it almost daily since she was 5 years old growing up in Pittsburgh. At Seneca Valley High School, she was active in sports and would even create exercise programs for people.<\/p>\n

After graduating in 1996, she enrolled at Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania with the intention of going on to graduate school in physical therapy. But along the way she discovered exercise science, which can lead to careers in personal fitness, athletic training, coaching, sports nutrition, sports medicine and other fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my heart I knew that that was what I was supposed to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI just thought it was so fascinating to think of how perfectly our body systems work together and how perfectly they\u2019re designed and how exercise makes everything better. Things change inside the body when you begin to exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning her bachelor\u2019s and master’s degrees in exercise science from Slippery Rock, Wonders was accepted at the University of Northern Colorado to pursue her doctorate in exercise physiology under the condition that she also conduct cancer research.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy research solidified my belief that everyone who has cancer should exercise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After earning her Ph.D. in 2006, she joined the faculty at Wright State as an assistant professor of exercise science in the College of Education and Human Services<\/a>. She is now a full professor.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Wonders started Wright State\u2019s Sports Science Program, which offers a bachelor\u2019s degree that can be a springboard to jobs as a physical trainer or at health clubs, clinics or in work-site wellness programs. Many students go on to get advanced degrees in exercise physiology, physical therapy or occupational therapy.<\/p>\n

It was at Wright State where the seeds for Maple Tree sprouted.<\/p>\n

Wonders says there are 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States, but fewer than 5 percent exercise during treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t get that out of my head,\u201d she recalled thinking. \u201cWhy if I know this is helpful and I see that no one has access to this, why am I not doing something about it? I thought I\u2019m in the perfect position to start something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maple Tree was born.<\/p>\n

It was named after Wonders\u2019 grandfather, who had three towering maple trees at the base of a large hill that was once his front yard. He walked four miles a day until losing a battle with cancer in 2007 at age 83.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a key figure in my life and I wanted to do something to honor him,\u201d Wonders said. \u201cI looked at it as a ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wonders says that when people get diagnosed with cancer they are \u201cscared to death.\u201d Exercise can help with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have more feelings of control,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I\u2019m feeling in control of my diagnosis, in control of my life, I\u2019m more likely to take my medicine. And when you take your medicine you\u2019re more likely to go into remission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program offers aerobic exercise, resistance training and flexibility work. Dieticians advise patients on their nutritional needs, promoting a plant-based diet.<\/p>\n

One newly diagnosed patient who came to Maple Tree early this year arrived in a wheelchair. She was overweight, depressed and had never exercised before.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said she couldn\u2019t even go grocery shopping because she would get too tired,\u201d said Wonders. \u201cSeven months later, she doesn\u2019t even need a walker. You can see the change in her, just in her eyes. I feel like she has more joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

MapleTree also has a faith-based component.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people who are walking through the most difficult season of their life,\u201d said Wonders. \u201cMaybe they\u2019ve never thought about mortality before. Now they have cancer, and that\u2019s all they can think about. So I wanted to be able to offer them hope if that were to come up. It\u2019s an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year Wonders earned her master\u2019s degree in ministry at Cedarville University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think the reason God has me on this Earth is to do Maple Tree,\u201d said Wonders, a 39-year-old mother of seven children ages 2 to 12. \u201cIt\u2019s part of who I am. It means so much to me. I could not imagine my life without it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karen Wonders, director of the Wright State Sports Science Program, founded the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, which provides exercise, nutritional guidance and fellowship to people battling cancer. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":54667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2023,4300,2017,744,725,4898,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-faculty","category-faculty-profile","category-nursing-health","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-kinesiology-health-sciences","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54662"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54672,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54662\/revisions\/54672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}