How Exercise Helps - Living With Breast Cancer And Its Treatments: Breast Cancer

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

How exercise helps

Exercising is beneficial in many ways. It can reduce nausea from chemotherapy, reduce fatigue associated with treatment, and increase your quality of life. Exercising can also help you recover faster and more completely.

A mix of stretching, cardiovascular, and strength exercises is recommended.

Stretching can help you regain flexibility and ease the muscle stiffness and other symptoms that are common after breast surgery.

Cardiovascular exercises, such as regular walking, are also important because they can help offset the rapid loss of muscle mass and gain of fat tissue that chemotherapy often causes. A 40-year-old woman undergoing chemotherapy usually has a 2.5% increase in body fat within a year - as much as a healthy 40-year-old woman would normally gain in 10 years. As your recovery progresses, taking regular walks can help you build muscle and reduce body fat.

Strength, or weight-bearing, exercises can help maintain bone density, thereby reducing the risk of osteoporosis, a side effect of chemotherapy and the hormonal medication Arimidex. Strength training also builds muscle and reduces body fat.

Last updated:	April 23, 2007