(Radio Iowa) — Studies on cancer patients from Iowa and Nebraska who are undergoing chemotherapy find there are great benefits from low-intensity exercise. Creighton University Professor Eric Bredahl, in the department of exercise science, says even moderate physical activity can help slow tumor growth, while reducing damage to the heart that happens during chemotherapy. “The risk of dying from heart failure becomes greater with each round of chemotherapy,” Bredahl says. “By using exercise and trying to understand those adaptations, we can then employ that exercise prior to, during or even after chemotherapy to preserve or attenuate that decline in cardiac tissue.”

Researchers say even low impact exercise, such as walking and doing yoga, can make a noticeable difference.  “When people go through chemo, they often have a number of side effects that decrease their quality of life. They can’t eat, they feel lethargic, they feel fatigued, their muscles become weaker,” Bredahl says. “If we add resistance training in, we know they eat more, so they maintain a greater capacity to perform their activities of daily living, they feel better.”

An exercise regimen isn’t possible for all patients undergoing chemo, which is why Bredahl plans to take research a step further. “There’s still a number of cancer patients who, due to physical limitations, core morbidities, can’t exercise. What can we do to improve their quality of life?” Bredahl says. “We’re trying to look at different compounds that can be given concurrently with chemotherapy to try to minimize the damage to healthy tissue.”

The research finds exercise can decrease the chance of major issues during chemotherapy and will eventually lead to a greater health outcome, as the side effects of chemo become less apparent.

A traffic stop in Red Oak for a minor infraction, resulted in an arrest this (Wednesday) morning. Police say 33-year old Sara Sue Batten, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 1:15-a.m., for Driving While Barred. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man who spent more than 25 years in prison for an Iowa murder that he did not commit is urging college students to help inmates who may be innocent. Terry Harrington spoke to Coe College students on Tuesday, recounting how he was wrongly convicted in the 1977 shooting death of a Council Bluffs security guard when he was a teenager. Harrington had exhausted his appeals and was serving a life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary when he met a prison barber who believed in his innocence.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Officials in Waterloo have approved a measure banning the city and many businesses from asking about applicants’ criminal records in early stages of the hiring process. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the City Council on Monday approved a so-called “ban-the-box” ordinance. It doesn’t let employers ask about an applicant’s criminal history until after making a conditional job offer. The measure is intended to ensure people with criminal convictions get a fair chance of getting jobs.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Forecasters say a wintry storm system could drop up to 10 inches of snow on northwest Nebraska later this week. The National Weather Service says ice could form on wet pavement late Wednesday night or early Thursday as the system arrives, followed by snow and winds gusting to 35 mph. The system is expected to move east, leaving less snow across much of northern and northeast Nebraska. The system also could drop some snow on northwestern and northern Iowa on Friday or early Saturday.