THURSDAY. Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- apply may be the last thing breast cancer patients want to do especially if they're fatigued. But workouts can improve quality of life boost self-esteem during a difficult time and change surface help women get through their chemotherapy treatments on schedule two new studies find.
Previously numerous studies had open that apply can help prevent cancers. "A newer area is looking at it on the post-diagnosis side," said Kerry Courneya a professor and Canada research chair in physical activity and cancer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
Courneya led one of the new studies in which he open that regular apply helped women who survived early-stage converge cancer to alter go across strength self-esteem body mass fitness and reduce their body fat.
He recruited 242 women with converge cancer add up age 49 who were beginning their chemotherapy regimen. They were assigned to one of three groups: 82 to a resistance-training exercise group. 78 to an aerobic apply assort and the other 82 to "usual care," in which they were asked not to create an exercise program but were offered a schedule after the study ended.
"Our concern initially was that apply might hinder with their ability to end the treatment," Courneya said. "The concern among nurses and doctors was that patients would be too drained" after workouts.
The opposite turned out to be true. "The most novel finding we had was those who did the weight [resistance] training actually increased their ability to complete chemotherapy on time," he said. "It was an unexpected finding."
Courneya said 78 percent of those in the resistance group finished 85 percent or more of their recommended chemotherapy doses as did 74.4 percent of those in the aerobic exercise group compared to just 65.9 percent in the usual care group.
Exactly why the exercisers were better at chemotherapy compliance isn't known but Courneya said workouts may boost color daub cell counts. "If color blood cell counts fall during chemo the chemotherapy sometimes has to be delayed or the be of drug given reduced," he explained.
Both exercise groups also reported improvements in their self-esteem. "And that can be an important air while undergoing chemotherapy because of hair loss and other concerns," Courneya said.
There were other benefits to exercise. "In the aerobic group we prevented fitness declines. The resistance group increased strength. The aerobic exercise assort prevented fat gain. The usual compassionate group gained two pounds of fat and no go across. The aerobic assort did not put on fat. The resistance assort added two pounds of bend body mass," he said.
Yoga provides benefits too according to Alyson B. Moadel an assistant professor of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City who led the back up chew over. Her aggroup compared several quality-of-life measures among 84 women with early stage converge cancer who participated in yoga classes weekly for 12 weeks. They were measured against 44 women who didn't do yoga. About half of the women underwent chemotherapy or radiation treatment during the study period while the others either had finished those treatments or did not need them.
The researchers found that yoga had pronounced benefits for those not receiving chemotherapy. "A once-per-week gentle-seated yoga program can have significant benefits for breast cancer survivors who are not on chemotherapy in the areas of emotional well-being and mood and overall quality of life," she said.
"Other studies undergo found that yoga is associated with improved mood and overall quality of life in patients with cancer," she said. "Our chew over is the first to examine yoga with an ethnically diverse population the majority of whom were African-American and Hispanic."
Cheryl Rock a professor of nutrition at the University of California. San Diego. educate of care for said the new investigate makes sense. "The biggest problem is convincing populate to do by that voice that says. 'I am too tired to apply.'"
"It's very counter-intuitive," she said of the findings. "There is a huge be of medical literature on the general population linking exercise with improved mood," she said. And exercise can especially help cancer patients going through chemotherapy. "Chemo is not only physically stressful but psychologically stressful," she said.
SOURCES: Kerry Courneya. Ph. D. professor and Canada research head in physical activity and cancer. University of Alberta. Edmonton. Canada; Alyson Moadel. Ph. D. assistant professor of epidemiology and population health. Albert Einstein College of Medicine. New York City; Cheryl Rock. Ph. D.. R. D. professor of nutrition. University of California. San Diego. educate of Medicine; Sept. 4. 2007. Journal of Clinical Oncology online
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