A new study has found that breast cancer survivors can reap benefits of weight training programs.
Through that study, researchers at Florida State University and other institutions found that if you put female breast cancer survivors on a weight training program and fed them prunes, they could at least maintain their current levels of muscle mass and bone density.
Co-author of the study, Lynn Panton, and one of her doctoral students, Titch Madzima, are following up on that research, recruiting another group of women to participate in a study that involves personal training twice per week, followed by consumption of a vanilla bean-flavored protein drink.
Panton and Madzima are trying to find out if they tweak the approach from the first study if they can eventually reverse the effects of the chemotherapy and help women gain back some lost muscle mass and bone density.
"If we can slow down that accelerated loss or reverse that process, hopefully we'll improve the quality of life of the breast cancer survivor," Madzima said.
The study was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism.