MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Dragons Abreast Australia recognises individuals need to make their own
decision as to when they are ready to join the team.
Each team members must acknowledge that they are responsible for their own health
and should consider notifying their own doctor/oncologist/surgeon that
they are participating as part of a dragon boat team.
Medical Background
Dr. Don McKenzie (now Professor McKenzie), a sports medicine physician at the University of British
Columbia, launched Abreast In A Boat in 1996 in Vancouver, Canada, to
test the myth that repetitive upper-body exercise in women treated for
breast cancer encourages lymphoedema. (see http://www.hkin.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/mckenzied/mckenzied.htm )
Dr McKenzie believed that by following a special exercise and training
program, women could avoid lymphoedema and enjoy active, full lives. As
the Abreast in a Boat team followed his program, they were carefully monitored
by a sports medicine physician, a physiotherapist and a nurse. Dr McKenzie's
theory was proven correct. No new cases of lymphoedema occurred and none
of the existing cases became worse.
From a medical study involving one boat of 25 women in 1996, the organization
grew to include five boats based in Vancouver and inspired many other
teams to form, including Dragons Abreast Australia.
See on this site : Don
McKenzie article (pdf)
Read articles about the medical history of Abreast In A Boat in the Canadian
Medical Association Journal (you will be leaving this site):
Abreast in a Boat - a race against breast cancer
Donald C. McKenzie, MD, PhD
Canadian Medical Association Journal
CMAJ 1998;159:376-8
is available on the net as both a web page and a pdf document:
http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/201/300/cdn_medical_association/cmaj/vol-159/issue-4/0376.htm
(suitable for quick online viewing .. has some additional links)
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/159/4/376.pdf
- (214 kB pdf)
(the paper in original format)
Don has some additional interesting research underway ..
"Exercise during Chemotherapy" by Don McKenzie (Winter 2004
Vol. 5 No.1)
http://www.abreastinthewest.ca/active2.cfm?Num=51
This page last updated:
January 2, 2008
