Avoid Disaster

18 Health & Well ness October 2010- Lee Edition
Breast Cancer and Exercise
I By LouAnn Good, Fitness Together - Fort Myers
I
n the US, around 40,000 women are dying
each year from breast cancer. It is the
second leading cause of cancer death in
women, exceeded only by lung cancer. The
greatest risk factor for developing breast cancer is
gender (female) and the second is age. Between
2000-2004,95 percent of new cases and 97 percent
of breast cancer deaths occurred in women aged 40
and older. Like most cancers, the causes are uncertain.
While no one knows with any certainty how
to prevent the occumce of breast cancer, we do
have control over many aspects of our lives that
can protect our health and also enhance our
recovery, Regardless of our genetic make-up, there
are a number of things that we, as women, can do
to protect ourselves. Mamograms and self-examinations
are critical to our health, as well as our lifestyle
choices, such as exercise and diet.
So what can we do if are diagnosed with breast
cancer and undergo treatment and therapy?
A daily walk around the block, a few laps in the
pool, a vigorous game of soccer: studies are now
suggesting that exercise is extending the lives of
women who've survived breast cancer, even as it
lifts their spirits and increases their sense of well
being. Being physically active boosts the odds that
breast cancer patients will survive the disease,
according to the first study to produce evidence
that exercise improves the prospects of beating
any malignancy.
The findings, from a large, well-respected study of
U.S. nurses, found that breast cancer patients who
walk or do other kinds of moderate exercise for three
to five hours a week are about 50 percent less likely
to die from the disease than sedentary women.
"Women with breast cancer have little to lose and
much to gain from exercise," said Michelle D.
Holmes of the Harvard Medical School in Boston,
who led the study, published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association. "This is good
news for women with breast cancer."
Dealing with any life threatening disease is much
more than just therapies and protocols. The diagnosis
and treatment for breast cancer can often
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