RESEARCH
“Stress has a profound impact on how your body’s systems function.”
Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D. (Dept. of Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson, The University of Texas)
Many doctors are now recommending and prescribing mind/body programs. Peer reviewed journals and controlled, double-blind studies are providing more evidence that mind/body and stress relief programs are effective complementary practices to treatment, offering physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual support.
Examination of Broad Symptom Improvement Resulting From Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Results demonstrated extended improvement for the MBSR(BC) group compared with usual care in both psychological symptoms of anxiety, fear of recurrence overall, and fear of recurrence problems and physical symptoms of fatigue severity and fatigue interference (P < .01). Overall effect sizes were largest for fear of recurrence problems (d = 0.35) and fatigue severity (d = 0.27). Moderation effects showed BCSs with the highest levels of stress at baseline experienced the greatest benefit from MBSR(BC).
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Feasibility of the mobile mindfulness-based stress reduction for breast cancer (MBSR(BC)) program for symptom improvement among breast cancer survivors.
These results provide preliminary support that the MBSR(BC) program may be feasible and acceptable, showing a clinical impact on decreasing psychological and physical symptoms. This mobile-based program offers a delivery of a standardized MBSR(BC) intervention to BCS that is convenient for their own schedule while decreasing symptom burden in the survivorship phase after treatment for breast cancer.
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Yoga helps fatigue, inflammation after breast cancer, study says….
Practicing yoga for at least three hours a week for three months reduced the fatigue and inflammation in breast cancer survivors, compared with survivors who did no yoga, researchers reported.
And the more yoga, the greater the change, the researchers, from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, said.
At six months – three months after the formal yoga had ended – fatigue was 57% lower in the women who had done yoga, compared with those who had not. Inflammation, measured by blood tests, was reduced by up to 20%, the researchers said.
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“The range of effects of psychosocial interventions on quality of life among women with breast cancer remains uncertain. Furthermore, it is unclear which components of multimodal interventions account for such effects. To address these issues, the authors tested a 10-week group cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention among 199 women newly treated for nonmetastatic breast cancer, following them for 1 year after recruitment. The intervention reduced reports of social disruption and increased emotional well-being, positive states of mind, benefit finding, positive lifestyle change, and positive affect for up to 12 months (indeed, some effects strengthened over time). With respect to mechanisms tested, the intervention increased confidence in being able to relax at will. There was also evidence that effects of the intervention on the various outcomes examined were mediated by change in confidence about being able to relax. Thus, this intervention had beneficial effects on diverse aspects of quality of life after treatment for breast cancer, which appear linked to a specific stress management skill taught in the intervention.”
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