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 Metabolic syndrome, which also includes also conditions like high
cholesterol and excessive fat around the midsection, is exacerbated
by overall obesity and a sedentary lifestyle as well as by
chemotherapy. The current study focused on 100 overweight and obese
women who were sedentary and had recently completed treatment for
breast cancer.
In a four-month experiment, researchers randomly assigned
participants to either stick with their usual activity levels or to
do supervised workouts three times a week.
When they joined the study, 77 percent of the women met the criteria
for metabolic syndrome. By the end of the experiment, only 15
percent of the participants in the exercise group still had this
diagnosis, compared with 80 percent of the inactive group.
“Heart disease is the main cause of death in breast cancer
survivors, and now we showed that exercise can improve risk factors
associated with heart disease,” said lead study author Christina
Dieli-Conwright, director of the Integrative Center for Oncology
Research in Exercise at the University of Southern California in Los
Angeles.
Exercise makes can improve the function of the heart, blood vessels,
lungs and muscles and this, combined with fat loss, can ease the
stress on the body that is caused by obesity, Dieli-Conwright said
by email.
“This process is critical for breast cancer survivors who may be
obese but also suffering from treatment side effects such as
fatigue, depression, and sedentary behavior,” Dieli-Conwright added.
“They are now at a higher risk for heart disease and can benefit
greatly from exercise.”
Previous research has linked cancer chemotherapies known as
anthracyclines to weakening of the heart muscle. Research has also
tied some radiation therapy to cardiac rhythm disorders and
structural damage in arteries and heart valves.
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Women in the current study who were assigned to the exercise group
received one-on-one guidance through workouts that included
resistance training with weights as well as moderate-intensity
aerobic activities.
In addition to reversing metabolic syndrome, these workouts were
also associated with a decrease in blood pressure and an increase in
high-density lipoprotein (HDL) “good” cholesterol that helps purge
blood vessels of debris and lower levels of triglycerides -
dangerous fats that can make blood thicker, stickier and more prone
to clots.
Three months after the workouts stopped, women in the exercise group
still had more improvements in metabolic syndrome than women who
remained sedentary throughout the study, researchers report in the
Journal of Clinical Oncology.
One limitation of the study is that the results from supervised
workouts in the experiment might not reflect what would happen if
women tried to exercise on their own, researchers note.
Another drawback is that the study didn’t examine the effects of
exercise based on what type of breast cancer women had, and this
might influence the impact of exercise on metabolic syndrome, said
Linda Vona-Davis, a researcher at the West Virginia University
Health Sciences Center in Morgantown.
“Exercise and healthy eating may be equally effective,” Vona-Davis,
who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Be that as it may,
adopting a physically active lifestyle has been shown to improve
functional capacity and quality of life in women with breast
cancer.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2BIqeOl Journal of Clinical Oncology, online
January 22, 2018.
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