Breast cancer survivors who follow a program of weight lifting exercises may reduce their risk of developing breast cancer related lymphedema, reports a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lymphedema, a condition where fluid retention causes painful swelling in localized areas or limbs, is most often brought on by the removal or emptying of lymph nodes during surgery or radiation therapy, and is most prevalent in the arms of women who have undergone treatment for breast cancer, where it is known as breast cancer related lymphedema, or BCRL.
Current guidelines recommend that breast cancer survivors refrain from lifting weights heavier than five pounds to avoid lymphedema, but researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that the reverse might actually be true.
Working with 154 breast cancer survivors, researchers assigned one group to perform gradually progressive weight lifting exercises for one year, while the control group had no designated exercise. Of the women who had followed the exercise program, 11 percent showed signs of BCRL onset, compared to 17 percent of those in the control group.
Looking only at women who had five or more lymph nodes removed during treatment, only seven percent of the women who exercised suffered BCRL onset, while 22 percent of those in the control group developed the symptoms.