Lisa Marie Bernardo, PhD, MPH, RN, HFS

The Internet can be a powerful tool for promoting health with its abundant resources on adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Wellness coaches are credentialed health, fitness, and mental health professionals trained to coach individuals on evidence-based areas of wellness, including physical activity, nutrition, weight, stress, and life satisfaction.

To prevent any lapses between us and the cyber world, we are meticulous about keeping our devices functioning optimally. Taking the time to apply the same principles that keep our devices functioning smoothly to our own lives can ensure our optimal performance.

Wellness coaches are credentialed health, fitness, and mental health professionals trained to coach individuals on evidence-based areas of wellness, including physical activity, nutrition, weight, stress, and life satisfaction. Recently, 30 cancer survivors were enrolled in a research study where they received wellness coaching over the telephone by a certified ACSM Health Fitness Specialist and Wellcoach who was a breast cancer survivor.

Traditionally, breast cancer survivors were advised not to perform strenuous upper body exercises, such as resistance (weight) training, because these activities were thought to promote lymphedema. However, recent research findings, including systematic reviews, demonstrate that resistance training does not increase either a woman�s risk for or the worsening of breast cancer-related lymphedema.

Mind-body fitness focuses on the connections between thinking, feeling, and doing. These exercises change energy patterns within the body, facilitating relaxation, reducing fatigue, and improving concentration. Because they also can be modified to suit a person's needs on any given day, they may be appealing to patients with cancer. What follows are descriptions of the most popular mind-body fitness programs, including yoga, pilates, and the Gyrotonic Expansion System.

There are countless Websites devoted to diet, physical activity, and exercise, many from credible and highly respected organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association. Harnessing the power of the Internet to create a virtual platform for promoting behavior change is becoming the new frontier for healthcare professionals, patients, families, and communities.