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Lifting Confidence Weightlifting can boost breast cancer survivors’ self-esteem, body image and emotional health. 
Working out can do a world of good for anyone. But, as one new study shows, breast cancer survivors can reap amazing emotional benefits from the habit – regardless of how much strength they gain. The study, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, found that survivors who lift weights regularly, at least twice a week, have better body images and more satisfactory sex-lives than those who don’t. “The results suggest that the act of spending time with your body was the thing that was important,” says Kathryn Schmitz, a senior author of the study and professor at U Penn, “not the physical results of strength.” By the end of the trial, weightlifting survivors said they felt more proud of their bodies, more comfortable in their own skin and more physically powerful, not to mention sexier. Besides these emotional benefits, the yearlong study also found that the survivors’ lifting made their lymphedema, an incurable arm-swelling side effect of breast surgery, flare-ups happen less frequently. This, too, was found nearly across the board, regardless of how much strength the patient gained. Unlike other similar studies, Schmitz designed a quality-of-life questionnaire to use in her study that is specifically made by and for breast cancer survivors. It addresses needs and problems that survivors face, and is designed to illuminate ways in which these problems can be overcome. “[Survivors] told us the basic quality-of-life questionnaire didn’t cover what was important to them,” Schmitz says. “There has been an aching need for this assessment tool, not just here, but internationally. These are the issues that women have reported that they cared about for a long time but nobody was ever asking them the question.” The questionnaire has been translated into five different languages and is underway to becoming standard in clinical practice. This is good news for breast cancer survivors everywhere, as more targeted research will lead to better findings on how they can improve their quality of life. Until this happens, though, it’s time to hit the gym. © CTW Features Post-surgical Problems Breast cancer surgery may lead to persistent pain for many women years after treatment By Christopher Adamson CTW Features Breast cancer treatment, while effective, isn’t without its long-term challenges. A new study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly half of women who have undergone breast cancer treatment report pain symptoms two to three years after treatment. These symptoms ranged anywhere from numbness or burning sensations to severe chronic pain. The pain can stem from several different causes, including nerve damage from different types of surgery. Most women reported experiencing the pain around their arm and underarm, the side of the body or the breast area. While post-surgical pain was the most common, women who had undergone supplemental therapy like chemotherapy or radiotherapy also reported pain. Age also played an important factor: The findings show that younger women, aged 18 to 39, who had undergone breast-conserving surgery were at higher risk. If post-operative patients are experiencing severe pain, Loretta Loftus, M.D., of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., recommends that they report it to their physician. “It may not all be related to the surgery,” she says. “There are treatments and therapies available, anything from medication to interventional procedures, like nerve blocks.” Since the study found that the majority of patients didn’t have severe pain, and there isn’t a completely sure way of preventing this kind of long-term pain before the treatment, Loftus recommends dealing the pain as needed. “I did run across an article that indicated that patients who had higher anxiety levels prior to surgery may be at higher risk to have post-operative pain, although that was more immediate,” she adds. “It’s possible that there may be possible psychological factors that may affect sensory disturbances in these long term chronic patients. I think further study would be necessary.” Loftus is confident, however, that these recent findings will be helpful in establishing better ways to relieve post-surgical pain in the future. |
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