HHS HealthBeat (June 13, 2012)

Being active against breast cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Becoming physically active and mentally resistant may make life go better for women with breast cancer. At the University of Miami, researcher Jamie Stagl saw that in data on 240 women who had surgery and follow-up treatment such as chemo and radiation. Half were in group stress management, and researchers looked at data on their physical activity.

“Women who received stress management and were correspondingly physically active reported the greatest benefit in terms of fatigue interference, quality of life, and depression.” (10 seconds)

Stagl says regular moderate activity alone – enough to raise a light sweat – did a lot of good.

The study presented at a meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: June 12, 2012