(WSVN) - A South Florida oncologist is mixing medicine and movement to create dance classes for those impacted by cancer. Karen Hensel shows us his unique approach in today’s 7 Spotlight.
Maxine Poupko’s breast cancer diagnosis came during an already isolating time.
Maxine Poupko: “I got diagnosed during the pandemic. I had treatment with surgery, and chemotherapy and radiation.”
Maxine survived, but says she still struggles with fatigue.
Maxine Poupko: “I knew that movement was the way out, because when I did move, when I did go out, I did feel better. But it was always difficult motivating myself.”
Enter Dr. Niraj Mehta.
Dr. Niraj Mehta, GenesisCare: “My whole life, I’ve always been very much into movement.”
The radiation oncologist practices in Southwest Miami-Dade.
Dr. Niraj Mehta: “You got to look at radiation oncology, right? That’s kind of the bread and butter of what I do, what you train for. A friend of mine was like, ‘You dance all the time, just go dance with your patients?’ and that’s what it started with. And I was like, ‘I’m not really a dance instructor per se.'”
Now, with almost 100 classes under his belt, Dr. Mehta balances his experience in medicine with his passion for movement.
Dr. Niraj Mehta: “Can we bring joy and passion into the health care space with movement being the medium?'”
Maxine Poupko: “I thought, ‘I’m going to go to this thing because it kind of looked interesting,’ plus I needed to get out of my apartment.”
Maxine, who is not one of Dr. Mehta’s patients, heard about his march class on social media.
Maxine Poupko:”I pushed myself to go. At first I didn’t want to participate, not feeling good. This was hurting, that was hurting.”
The class included other cancer patients, survivors and caregivers.
Maxine Poupko: “As the music went on, I just started to participate, and then I just started noticing, really, that my mood started changing. Just the energy in the room. And I remember Dr. Mehta was such a great dancer. I was just like, ‘Whoa.'”
While Dr. Mehta is not making any claims about his classes in particular, studies have shown the benefits of physical activity.
Dr. Niraj Mehta: “We know that after cancer, in terms of recurrence in breast and colorectal, and perhaps even in prostate, exercise has shown to actually decrease recurrence in and of itself.”
After the music, there was meditation, even tea.
Dr. Niraj Mehta: “We don’t want people to just survive. We want people to thrive.”
That’s something Maxine wants as well.
Maxine Poupko: “There was something, some level of comfort being with other people who had gone through similar experiences. It’s taxing the mind and the brain after cancer treatment.”
Maxine says she’d like to go again, and Dr. Mehta says his goal is to have these free classes held on a more consistent basis.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. Mehta’s movement classes, click here.
Karen Hensel, 7News.
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