Force Program The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise

HOW THE FORCE PROGRAM WAS BORN: JEFF BERMAN'S STORY At the beginning of 1990, Jeff Berman's life was almost perfect. He had been married since 1987, became a homeowner the following year, was a rising star in the lucrative TV ad sales business in Manhattan, and commuted home to suburban Bridgewater, New Jersey, every night. Life was good and looked as if it was going to get even better. Berman was, in his own words, "ready to fly." But his flight was rerouted, as he explains. "Sometime in February, something in my neck just felt wrong. It was swollen in one spot. I figured I'd give it a few weeks and it would go away. But after three weeks, I could still feel it. So I had my doctor take a look at it. He said it was probably nothing, and to give it a few more weeks. I asked him, 'You think it's a problem?' And he said, 'Nah, you've got a million-to-one shot of this being a problem.' " Those sounded like good odds. So Berman went back to his day-to-day life, which included sports. A wrestler in high school, Berman had maintained a similar fitness regimen as an adult. He lifted weights three or four times a week and, a few years earlier, had started running and cycling. He was planning to do his first triathlonthe swim, bike, run eventin April. Three weeks after his first visit, Berman returned to the doctor. The lump on his neck was bigger and longer. This time the doctor ordered tests: chest X rays, blood tests, and more. Everything came up normal. The one test left that they needed to do was a biopsy. "I go in for this biopsy, and I'm sitting in the hospital, in one of these gowns they give you. There's a guy next to me in a wheelchair. I remember he started telling me how the same thing happened to him. It was a 'Let's just do a precautionary test,' and the next thing he knows, he's got lung cancer and they're operating on him. I remember listening to him sympathetically, but it still never clicked that the same thing could happen to me. In fact, I was so relaxed that when I went in for the biopsy and lay down on the operating table, I fell asleep." The weekend after the biopsy, Berman completed his triathlon. Two weeks went by, and he was back into his normal routine, when his physician called. "We need to talk," he said. "What's the matter?" Berman replied. "Just come in," said the doctor. Berman arrived at the doctor's office between sales calls. He had his briefcase in hand and his three-piece suit on. "I was brought into his office, and there he isDr. Newman, a great guywith his head in his hands. I thought, 'Oh, shit, the million-to-one shot came through.' " Newman looked up at Berman and gave him the bad news. He had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a disease that primarily strikes people over sixty-five. Berman was told to seek out the help of specialists. The first one he went to, an eminent oncologist in Manhattan, told him that there was nothing that could be done for him until he developed symptoms. In other words, he had to get sick before he could be treated for the cancer that was already there. The next specialist, Dr. Bruce Raphael at New York University, told him something a little different. He said that Berman was the youngest patient he'd ever met with the disease and that the best thing to do was to track it and retest it every six months. Other than that: Go back to leading your life. "I left his office thinking that now I had a guy to work with. Now I had a plan. I kept training, I kept working, I felBerman, Jeffrey is the author of 'Force Program The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Exercise' with ISBN 9780345440884 and ISBN 0345440889.