For years women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer have been told to avoid lifting heavy objects for fear of causing painful arm swelling, known as lymphedema. However, new research appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that, on the contrary, weight lifting actually reduces the incidence of lymphedema. By studying 141 breast cancer survivors, it was noted that fewer weightlifters had suffered lymphedema flare-ups – 14% versus 29% among those who did not participate in weight training classes. Lead study author Kathryn Schmitz, an exercise scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, recommends that women do not rush into weight training after breast cancer surgery. Rather, she recommends the following:
- Have a certified fitness professional teach you how to do the exercises properly.
- Start slow, with a program that gradually progresses.
- Wear a well-fitting compression garment during workouts.
[via CBS News]
Read more about breast cancer, lymphedema, and share your comments here.
Tags: arm, breast, Cancer, lifting, lymph nodes, lymphedema, swelling, weight
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
August 17th, 2009 at 5:15 am
The media has played this story as if all women have been receiving bad advice from their doctor’s about breast cancer. Even this headline, “Breast cancer myth debunked,” is a little misleading – this is a discovery about lymphedema, not breast cancer. The media coverage has been exploiting women’s fear of breast cancer to attract attention to an article about lymphedema.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Hi Mari – thanks for your comments. I’d like to respond to some of your concerns. I don’t believe that all women have been receiving bad advice from their physicians. On the contrary, physicians pass on the knowledge that they themselves were taught, or learned from experience. It just seemed for a while that the prevailing advise to women post breast cancer surgery was to avoid repeatedly lifting heavy objects for fear of lymphedema development. Now that we know better, we take that knowledge and pass it forward. In regards to the title of the article, I personally do not believe it is misleading since we are talking about an issue dealing with breast cancer. Had I used the title “Lymphedema Myth Debunked” I was afraid that women with breast cancer (or know of someone with breast cancer) may not read the story because they may not think it’s relevant to them if they did not know what lymphedema is in the first place. I wanted to make sure that those with breast cancer read this story because it could potentially affect them.