Exercise Could Lower Fatigue And Depression In Breast Cancer Patients: Study

Exercise could be the secret weapon to help breast cancer patients combat common side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.

A new study that was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine shows that physical activity could help women being treated for breast cancer to have less fatigue and depression.

The study included 240 women with non-metastatic breast cancer, who were enrolled in the study anywhere from four to 10 weeks after they'd undergone surgery for their cancer. Some women who were put in a 10-week program where they learned Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management, while the other women completed a one-day "self help" group. Researchers also kept track of how much exercise all the study participants were getting.

The researchers found that the women who exercised the most during the time between the surgery and starting their assigned therapy were also the ones whose fatigue got in the way of their daily lives the least. In addition, these women's moods were not as depressed.

"Women who are physically active may also have more confidence in their own ability to continue with family-related, household, work-related, or social activities, which bring meaning and satisfaction to their lives," Jamie M. Stagl, M.S., doctoral student in at the University of Miami, said in a statement. "This may lead to appraisals of lower fatigue, heightened quality of life, and less depression."

Similarly, a study published earlier this month in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons showed that taking regular walks could help to decrease exhaustion commonly felt by cancer patients.

That study included 102 people who had just had surgery done for their pancreatic or periampullary cancers. Eighty-five percent of them reported having fatigue at a moderate to severe level.

However, the researchers from Thomas Jefferson University found that people who walked 90 to 150 extra minutes a week had a decrease in their fatigue of 27 percent. Comparatively, people who were not instructed to do any sort of walking exercise after being discharged from the hospital experienced a decrease in fatigue of 19 percent.

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Comments

[AndreaHut]

01:31 AM on 04/18/2012

This was my own experience during treatment for breast cancer. My medical team recommended I walk every day. Especially right after chemo - and it helped a lot. Hard to drag my sorry self outside some days, but always worth it. For more tips and hints on dealing with breast cancer, check out www.baldisbetterwithearrings.com

[Bradley Scott Roon]

12:53 PM on 04/14/2012

Not new news.

In 1931 Dr Otto Warburg received his first Nobel Prize for Medicine by proving that cancer always takes place in a low oxygen environment. In this day and age there are many more modalities in which this intracellular oxygen starvation can take place. The insanity of all the toxic chemicals (redundant phrase?) in our air, food, and water. The decreased nutrition, especially in Roundup grown crops which constitutes way over 3/4 of the factory farm food. The microwaved foods. The bad fats building weak and deformed cell walls with bad phospholipids and thus incapable of maintaining cellular integrity and proper cellular oxygenation.
I've heard of many varieties of "spontaneous remission" of cancers. Some people decided that they were going to exercise their butts off, and that was all they did. They found their cancer disappeared. I know of people who decided to literally go out laughing. They watched every comedy they could get their hands on. Cured. Yoga, cured. All of these things obviously increase cellular oxygenation opportunities.

[Bradley Scott Roon]

12:53 PM on 04/14/2012

Then there are the studies which show that skin cancer increased 500% with the advent of sun block. Why? Oily preparations blocking skin respiration and removal of bodily waste. CO2 builds up underneath the skin, O2 can't get in: perfect anaerobic environment to develop a cancer. I read a 1990s study which found a correlation between bras and breast cancer. Bras can't help but reduce available oxygen to skin tissues. Or the caffeine reduces some cancers a bit, caffeine is a stimulant which is going to increase circulation, increasing oxygenation.
How can exercise NOT help would seem a better question.

[Annette Gallagher]

03:42 PM on 04/16/2012

Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that women in breast cancer treatment should not exercise because of the risk of lymphedema. That is the important thing here - we may not realize it, not being part of the treatment community, but women were being told to not be active!

[Bradley Scott Roon]

04:10 PM on 04/16/2012

So many myths. So many lies. So much money.

I hadn't realized the mammogram/radiology industry is something like a 4 Billion/yr industry. Of course they are going to resent it when ladies find out that the low level radiation is likely causing breast cancer in some women. Of course they are going to state that thermography is not an alternative. Of course they are going to state that those "new" enzyme tests are not as good as their trusty, rusty old technology.
If you aren't familiar with the thermographic test, one bares the skin as it were, and has cold air blown against the breasts. There are two basic types of vascular response. Your natural, healthy reaction is to reduce your blood flow to the area that is cold by constricting your blood vessels. The cancerous vascular system is NOT able to do that. With sensitive thermal imaging it is easy to see the "hot spots" that indicate a cancerous mass.
This is done without carcinogenic radiation. It is done without smashing a woman's anatomy. It is actually more sensitive and accurate. It greatly reduces the risk of false positives which cause thousands of women to have breasts mutilated or removed needlessly as the computer enhanced mammogram tends to read anything "not normal" as a cancer, and the doctor says, Oh my God, we have to get rid of this right NOW! as they think KA-CHING!.