Weight training boosts breast cancer survivors' body image and intimate relationship satisfaction

In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a recipe for self-awareness among survivors of breast cancer, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Research. Survivors of breast cancer who lift weights regularly feel better about their body and appearance and are satisfied with their intimate relationships are compared to survivors who do not lift the weight, according to a new study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Even the survivors' perceptions of weight lifting, regardless of how much energy they improved over the years, the study of long, or if they suffered from lymphedema, an incurable and often debilitating side effects of surgery breast.

"It seems that strength training is not only safe and lymphedema can be few relapses, but it seems to help women feel better about their bodies," says lead author, Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of Penn's Abramson Cancer Center. "The results suggest that the act was time with your body, what is important - not the results of physical force."

The new results from a randomized controlled trial that tested the effects of double-weight lifting per week for 12 months on the health of survivors and emotional state. In the first report of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in August, Schmitz and colleagues lymphedema noted that stakeholders who have been lifting weights less likely to experience deterioration in their arm-swelling condition.

But the benefits go even further: the survivors who had participated in regular weightlifting during the trial reported a 12 per cent of their body image and satisfaction with their intimate relationships during the 12 months of the study, compared to 2 percent improvement by women in the control arm of the study. Both groups of women have benefited from the emergence of emotional weight in the study requested by the Physical Activity and Lymphedema (PAL) trial.

Unlike many surveys of the medical study that questions about the overall quality of life factors, was the only one in this study used specially developed for - and survive - breast cancer. Called body image and relationships scale, the questionnaire was developed with the help of survivors who had participated in previous clinical studies. New data from questionnaires completed by 234 survivors of breast cancer at the beginning and end of the study.

"They told us not to meet the basic quality of life questionnaire, which is important for them," said Schmitz. "They told us what has changed with the regular weightlifting, and what their importance, including feeling more proud of her body, feeling more comfortable in her skin, feeling emotional power because they are physically strong, feeling sexy, more things they could wear sleeveless more comfortable with people touching the upper body, and some of them said their sex life better. "

Surprisingly Schmitz such quality of life questionnaire is passed as it is PAL-litigated, so she and her team of Body Image Scale and connections developed.

"It was a painful need for this assessment tool, not only here but also internationally," said Schmitz was. "The survey is already used in five other languages - Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew and Swedish -- and efforts in clinical practice, it is translated. These are issues that women reported that they maintained for a long time but no one was to ask them. "