Coping with breast cancer
There aren't many personal health crises more devastating than receiving a diagnosis of cancer. While breast cancer rates are reported to be declining in recent years, it's still projected that this year in the U.S. alone, 178,000 women will receive the heart-wrenching news.
That's a lot of women that are going to have their quality of life severely challenged, and their coping mechanisms stretched to their limit.
Two recent studies offer the hope of maintaining—and best case scenario, improving—the quality of life for these women. One of these studies, the Supervised Trial of Aerobic versus Resistance Training (START), included women who all had early-stage breast cancer and were receiving chemotherapy.
Participants were divided into three groups: One received supervised resistance training three times per week, the second received aerobic workouts three times per week, and the third received no exercise regimen. These workouts, along with chemotherapy, were done for an average of 17 weeks, with the women surveyed at the beginning, middle, and a month after chemotherapy treatment.
Results showed that resistance training improved muscle strength, self-esteem and lean body mass. Aerobic exercise was found to also improve self-esteem, as well as aerobic fitness and percentage of body fat.
A highlight of this study was the finding that the women who took part in the resistance exercises also had the best chemotherapy treatment completion rate. The research team suggested that the exercise may have boosted white blood cell counts. Chemotherapy can actually be thrown off schedule if white blood cells drop too low (a condition known as neutropenia). This is one of the unfortunate side effects of chemotherapy, which can act like a runaway train, killing sick and healthy cells alike.
A second study was done that examined the role of regular yoga and the quality of life of early-stage breast cancer patients. For 12 weeks, 84 women took a weekly yoga class and were compared to 44 women who did not participate. Also, half of the group received chemotherapy during this timeframe, and the other half had either completed their treatment or did not require the treatment at all.
At the beginning of the study, survey results revealed that these women had lower than average levels of quality of life. As the study got underway, the picture flipped. For all the women who took yoga, they reported feeling a greater sense of social well being than those who were not participants in the yoga classes.
Women not undergoing chemotherapy but taking yoga, reported an improved quality of life, well-being and mood was reported, compared with the women who were in chemotherapy but not taking yoga. Unfortunately, these women reported a decline in their quality of life, well-being and mood, as would generally be expected.
Anyone going through chemotherapy has a lot to deal with, in terms of being both physically and emotionally drained. It may seem at odds with logic that these patients would be able to muster what energy they have left and actually do a workout. But these results are from the mouths of the patients, reporting on how they feel. And I say, if it feels good and is good for you—move heaven and earth to do it.
There are several options to consider. See if your local hospital offers exercise classes. Or, if you'd rather stay close to home, you could use VCR tapes or DVD's and perform an effective at-home workout. Go to www.gaiam.com for a wide assortment of yoga tapes, DVD's and equipment.
