Dragonboating & Breast Cancer

Legend holds that dragon boat racing got its start more than 2,000 years ago in southern China, where boats festooned with dragon heads were used in rituals to encourage bountiful harvests. Dragon boat racing is now the fastest growing sport in the world.

In 1995, Dr. Don McKenzie, a sports medicine physician in Canada, pioneered the research that led to encouraging women with breast cancer to challenge themselves physically. He conducted a research study that overturned the prevailing medical view that women with breast cancer should restrict upper body exercise to prevent lymphedema. He did this study using the ancient sport of dragon boating and concluded that women with breast cancer can undertake upper body exercise, encouraging living full and active lives. Today, breast cancer survivors dragon boat teams flourish across the United States, Canada, and internationally.

Click here to read more about on-going research into the connection between dragon boating and therapy for breast cancer survivors which appeared in the Feb 9, 2008 edition of Science Daily.