Doctor explores the benefits of strength training for breast cancer survivors

• Actions of the lymph system include regulating the balance of fluids in the limbs and fighting infections.
• When lymph nodes in the armpit are removed or damaged, patients can no longer appropriately regulate the fluid in their affected arm -- which leads to swelling that can range from mild to extensive (bordering on elephantitis) and quite disfiguring.
• "It affects up to one-half of the nearly two million breast-cancer survivors alive in the U.S. today -- which means that there may be as many as one million women suffer from some form of lymphedema."
• Current clinical guidelines advise lymphedema sufferers to not participate in any vigorous upper-body exercise; and, in particular, to not lift objects that weigh more than five to 15 pounds.
• Strength training, believes Schmitz (an exercise physiologist), is an intriguing intervention for breast-cancer survivors as there is evidence that exercise improves health parameters and quality of life.
• Based on data from her own previous study (as well as other reports in the medical literature), a program of slowly-progressive weight-lifting exercises permits women to gradually increase the physical capacity of the damaged arm in a controlled setting, making it less likely that the occasional activities of daily living that require strenuous upper-body work -- such as shoveling snow or carrying children -- would over-stress the injured lymphatic system.
• Since each study participant will be required to perform a carefully-controlled program of weight-training exercises twice a week for one year, Schmitz had partnered with approximately 11 fitness facilities throughout the Philadelphia region -- including Sisters in Shape Fitness (in Logan); the Pottruck Center at the University of Pennsylvania; and nine YMCA sites in the greater metropolitan area.
• "We were able to literally re-empower women in their lives by re-empowering them physically!"