Breast Cancer Survivors Can Reap the Benefits of Free Yoga Classes
- TV presenter and breast cancer survivor Samantha Harris is the spokesperson for the YogaWorks Pink program a partnership between Susan G. Komen and YogaWorks to provide free online yoga classes for the breast cancer community.
- Harris was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2014 “even after a clear mammogram.” During her cancer journey, she found that yoga helped reduce her symptoms and side effects and reclaim her body.
- Experts say maintaining an active lifestyle can be helpful for cancer prevention, for patients undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, and for survivors recovering from treatment.
A breast cancer survivor, Emmy-winning TV host and wellness enthusiast, Harris has partnered with Susan G. Komen to promote the breast cancer organization’s recent collaboration with YogaWorks to provide online yoga classes designed for the breast cancer community.
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“Why didn't this exist when I was recovering from my three breast cancer surgeries in 2014?” she wrote in a recent Instagram post. “Thrilled to be the spokesperson helping to share this incredible resource being offered from @susangkomen and @yogaworks for NO COST for the first three months to the whole breast cancer community!”
In a news release, Harris further detailed the impact yoga has had on her life as a cancer survivor.
“As a survivor, thriver, and yoga-lover myself, I’ve lived the benefits that yoga has brought in calming my mind, helping reduce symptoms and side effects as well as allowing me to move around more easily after surgery and reclaim my body,” she said.
Samantha Harris’ Cancer Journey
Samantha Harris was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2014 “even after a clear mammogram.”
“It missed the cancer in my right breast,” she explains on her website. “Two doctors told me the lump I found 11 days later was ‘nothing.’
“Finally, four months after finding that lump, I went to see a breast cancer specialist (a surgical oncologist) someone whose main job it is to look at breasts all day and specializes in the detection of breast cancer.”
When You're Getting a Mammogram, Ask About Dense Breasts
She then had a follow-up MRI, biopsy and ultrasound, but her cancer still remained undetected, though doctors did see that “something was not right.”
“We decided to take it out,” she wrote of the next steps in her cancer journey. “Thank goodness, because when the pathology from that lumpectomy came back, it was indeed invasive carcinoma, in addition to the less concerning ductal carcinoma in situ.”
From there, she needed a bilateral mastectomy followed by reconstruction. And even though her cancer did spread to one lymph node, she did not need chemotherapy or radiation.
“This roller coaster was filled with immensely difficult decisions, but I am thrilled to report that they got it all and I am cancer free!” her website reads. “I will continue to be monitored closely for the rest of what doctors tell me is sure to be a long, healthy life.
“I remain on an estrogen-blocker to keep any future breast cancer from rearing its ugly head and I am back to all my regular activities. Mom to two energetic, wonderful little girls. Work. Hitting the gym hard-core as always. Happiness.”
Exercise for Cancer Survivors
Everyone wants to feel better after cancer treatment, but finding ways to do that can be a challenge. It could be painting, running, hiking, dancing, writing or any number of activities, but the most important thing is that you’re finding joy in whatever you choose to do.
Heather Maloney is a breast cancer survivor who struggled after cancer treatment. She underwent chemotherapy, surgery and radiation that left her feeling pretty beat down. But then she found dragon boating a sport that's become hugely popular among cancer survivors. Now, she's a member of the Empire Dragons, a dragon boating team of breast cancer survivors based in New York City.
"It's very exciting," Heather says. "For people who had gone through such a beating, everyone had gone through a very challenging time in their treatment. And then to go on, and kick it, hard, on a dragon boat … it's very fun."
How Do You Feel Better After Cancer? For Heather Maloney it Was Dragon Boating
According to the National Cancer Institute, physical activity is beneficial for cancer survivors. The NCI cited findings from a report of the 2018 American College of Sports Medicine International Multidisciplinary Roundtable on physical activity and cancer prevention and control in saying that exercise is generally good for cancer survivors. The roundtable also found:
- Strong evidence that moderate-intensity aerobic training and/or resistance exercise during and after cancer treatment can reduce anxiety, depressive symptoms and fatigue and improve health-related quality of life and physical function.
- Strong evidence that exercise training is safe in people who have or might develop breast-cancer-related lymphedema.
- Some evidence that exercise is beneficial for bone health and sleep quality.
- Insufficient evidence that physical activity can help prevent cardiotoxicity or chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy or improve cognitive function, falls, nausea, pain, sexual function or treatment tolerance.
Still, it's important to note that other experts like Dr. Sairah Ahmed, associate professor in the Division of Cancer Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, say being in good shape during your cancer battle is very beneficial.
In fact, studies suggest that physical activity can be a powerful antidote for side effects of cancer treatment like "chemo brain" and, according to Dr. Ahmed, the more physically fit you are during cancer treatment, the less side effects you'll have and the faster you'll get back to your normal quality of life.
"In terms of cancer, oftentimes patients feel that they don't have any control over any part of their life, and that's not true," Ahmed told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview. "Diet, exercise, and stress control are extremely important when going through cancer therapy, as well as once you're done treating your cancer and trying to get back to the rest of your life."
Dr. Ken Miller says a healthy diet and regular workout routine are important
And Dr. Ken Miller, the director of outpatient oncology at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, recommends these four things for cancer survivors to do to try and avoid another cancer diagnosis:
- Exercise at least two hours a week walking counts
- Eat a low-fat diet
- Eat a colorful diet with lots of fruits and vegetables doctors recommend two to three cups a day
- Maintain a healthy weight
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