Weightlifting Relieves Lymphedema Following Breast Cancer
AUGUST 18, 2009
Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, lead author of a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine showing
that women who suffer from lymphedema following breast cancer surgery
can lift weights to get relief from their symptoms – a finding that
challenges decades of medical advice -- is quoted stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, Time, Reuters, and US News and World Report (via HealthDay News). An Associated Press story about Schmitz's research ran in newspapers nationwide, including the Los Angeles Times, and the study was also highlighted on the NBC Nightly News, in the Wall Street Journal, in MedPage Today and on WebMD. In additional television coverage, CNN Headline News and dozens of FOX, ABC, and NBC and CBS
news affiliates in cities including New York, Toronto, Boston, Seattle
and Los Angeles covered the findings. Stories of several participants
of the study, which enrolled 141 women, were also profiled in the
coverage. Though doctors have historically told women to avoid lifting
much of anything – from heavy purses to children to grocery bags – in
order to avoid exacerbating their symptoms, Schmitz, an associate
professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of the
Abramson Cancer Center, is hopeful her research will change doctors'
approach and encourage more women to reap the many health benefits of
weight training. "Hopefully this will be the last nail in the coffin
for that kind of misguided advice," she says.
This story was also featured in the New York Times Science section and the New York Times Well Blog Q & A.
