Saturday, November 8, 2014

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! 25: Weight Training Can HELP Stop Or Reduce Lymphedema


http://www.lymphedemablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/weight-exercises.jpg

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/exercise-program-successful-in-life

Exercise and breast cancer – at first thought, you might say, “What!!!!!” The implication of a breast cancer diagnosis or treatment, brings to mind hospital beds, recuperation, and convalescence.

Not hitting the weight room!

But this study, while it’s neither large nor longitudinal for more than a year, seems to indicate that gentle weight training has a good chance of either preventing the occurrence of lymphedema or reducing it.

We’re NOT talking pumping iron, here folks! In the words of the study: “As in PAL [Physical Activity and Lymphedema Trial], the researchers found that the Strength After Breast Cancer program didn’t increase the risk of lymphedema and helped ease lymphedema symptoms. The women were also stronger at the end of the program and felt better about their bodies.”

Does this mean you have to join a gym and get into those leotards and exercise?

Not necessarily. Simply returning to moderate exercise after breast cancer treatment and surgery is GOOD: “...one study found that women who followed a slow, progressive strength-training program lowered their risk of developing lymphedema by 35 percent; women who had at least five lymph nodes removed and started lifting weights reduced their risk by 70 percent.”

As well, the article goes on to talk about other aspects of exercise after breast cancer and as always, do so with your doctor’s knowledge and under her supervision. Even so, “Increased physical activity after cancer treatment has been consistently linked to better physical function, reduced fatigue, and bodily pain...Compared to sedentary women, regular exercisers, who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, have a much lower risk of breast cancer recurrence, breast cancer death, and all causes of death.”

And NOT just the wives/girlfriends/moms/sisters, gentlemen! We need to exercise as well to maintain our health and support our women!

Capisce? (From Neapolitan capisci, the second-person present-tense form of capire (“to understand”), from Latin capere (“to grasp, seize”).)


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