Yoga Benefits For Cancer Patients

Cancer

Yoga Benefits for Cancer Patients Yoga's gentle exercises have numerous well-known health benefits. Practicing yoga can lower blood pressure, improve coordination and reduce stress. For those coping with a chronic illness such as mesothelioma or other types of cancers, a yoga routine can be added to a treatment regimen, whether it is holistic or traditional treatment. Like any treatment, yoga should be individualized to meet specific needs. Unsurprisingly, cancer patients often do not have enough energy and do not feel well enough for much physical activity.
Especially during treatments such as chemotherapy, even simple tasks like making dinner can become daunting chores. Cancer patients often suffer from fatigue and muscle soreness, as well as various other ailments like shortness of breath caused by mesothelioma of the lung. These problems often can be relieved by implementing a gentle yoga routine. For patients who may have trouble integrating physical activity into their lives during treatment, yoga stretches and poses provide a low-impact, low-stress technique for rejuvenating and reenergizing the body.
A patient should incorporate yoga in whatever way works best for his or her schedule and body. Some cancer patients find that a weekly 30- to 60-minute yoga session is enough to improve physical wellbeing and reduce stress. Others benefit from a daily or twice-daily practice. A short 10-minute session in the morning and another before bed can have significant physical results without imposing on a busy schedule. As with any such lifestyle change, a new yoga practice should be approved by cancer patients' doctors.
Doctors can advise their patients with regards to each specific diagnosis and condition and may even be able to recommend a therapeutic yoga instructor. In addition to communicating with their doctors, patients should tell their yoga instructors of the special circumstances and any other relevant physical problems.
Courtesy of www.pleuralmesothelioma.com

Fatigue in Cancer Survivors

Yoga improves fatigue in cancer survivors

Cancer can be a devastating disease that saps energy often due to radiation and chemotherapy. Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York assigned more than 400 cancer survivors to one of two groups.
Most had been treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer. The first group did gentle Hatha yoga and restorative yoga twice a week for a month. The other group did not engage in such activity. The individuals who did yoga were able to cut back on sleeping pills and slept better. Yoga also increased their energy levels and improved their quality of life.

Cancer Patients and Survivors

Yoga Helps Cancer Patients

A gentle form of yoga helps those with lymphoma sleep better. Lymphoma is a cancer that arises in the cells of the immune system. The investigators found that among 39 patients being treated for lymphoma, those who participated in only seven weekly sessions of yoga said they got to sleep sooner, slept for longer, and needed fewer drugs to fall asleep. Study author Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, explained that living with cancer can be a very stressful experience, as patients cope with a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness and the side effects of treatment. As is well known, stress can often interfere with patients' sleep habits. Over the years, studies have linked yoga to a number of health benefits, including lowering blood pressure, beating fatigue and easing chronic pain. In the current report, Cohen and his team asked half of the patients to participate in seven weekly sessions of yoga and the results were compared to other patients with lymphoma who did not participate in the yoga program. Some studies have suggested that up to three quarters of cancer patients struggle with sleep. This may have important health consequences since sleep disturbances have been linked with problems with the immune system, and an increased risk of illness or death. Individuals with cancer should be cautioned that while undergoing or recovering from treatment one should adopt a gentle routine, and avoid excessively strenuous routines. This is particularly true for cancer patients who have metastases to the bones which would make the skeletal system more prone to fractures. There is good reason to expect that a gentle form of yoga would be beneficial to not only patients with lymphoma, but those suffering from other types of cancer.
Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years to improve physical and emotional well-being. Several recent studies have been conducted with cancer patients and survivors. Nine studies conducted with cancer patients and survivors yielded modest improvements in sleep quality, mood, stress, cancer-related distress, cancer-related symptoms, and overall quality of life. Studies conducted in other patient populations and healthy individuals have shown beneficial effects on psychological symptoms, as well as other aspects of physical function. Results from the emerging literature on yoga and cancer provide preliminary support for yoga interventions for cancer patients, although controlled trials are lacking.
Dr. Ray Sahelian comments: I started yoga 20 years ago and I love it. It makes me feel so relaxed, revitalized, and supple. I heard someone once say, "You're as young as your spine is flexible." Although not completely true, part of staying younger is to have flexibility of tendons and ligaments. No amount of a healthy diet and supplement intake is going to replace the benefits of yoga or other forms of stretching practices. Although I realize how important yoga is, sometimes I don't have the patience to attend a one and half hour class, so I do it at home at 20 minute intervals a few times a week. There are several yoga programs on TV, particularly the public funded channels, and you can tape some and do the yoga postures at your leisure. Or, you can attend a local yoga class.

Yoga for cancer patients and survivors

Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years to improve physical and emotional well-being. Empirical research on yoga has been ongoing for several decades, including several recent studies conducted with cancer patients and survivors. METHODS: This review provides a general introduction to yoga and a detailed review of yoga research in cancer. RESULTS: Nine studies conducted with cancer patients and survivors yielded modest improvements in sleep quality, mood, stress, cancer-related distress, cancer-related symptoms, and overall quality of life. Studies conducted in other patient populations and healthy individuals have shown beneficial effects on psychological and somatic symptoms, as well as other aspects of physical function. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the emerging literature on yoga and cancer provide preliminary support for the feasibility and efficacy of yoga interventions for cancer patients, although controlled trials are lacking. Further research is required to determine the reliability of these effects and to identify their underlying mechanisms.
Cancer Control. 2005 Jul;12(3):165-71. Bower JE, Woolery A, Sternlieb B, Garet D.
University of California, Los Angeles Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Los Angeles

Breast Cancer

Research is becoming clear on this: Women who do yoga during and after treatment experience less physical discomfort and stress. Earlier this year Duke University scientists reported results of a pilot study in which women with metastatic breast cancer attended eight weekly yoga sessions. The doctors found that the women had much less pain and felt more energetic and relaxed.

Yoga and Breast Cancer

Women who took yoga classes during breast cancer treatment reported they could function better physically and felt better about their health. Sixty-two women who were undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer were randomly assigned to attend yoga classes twice a week or be put on a waiting list to start yoga after their treatment. The women who practiced yoga reported better physical functioning, such as the ability to walk a mile, climb stairs and lift groceries, said Lorenzo Cohen, director of integrative medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. They also felt better about their overall health and reported less fatigue and problems sleeping. No difference was seen, however, in rates of depression and anxiety in the two groups. In the study, instructors emphasized breathing and relaxation and excluded positions that would be difficult for patients with weakened range of motion. The average patient in the study was 52 years old.

Breast cancer patients benefit from a yoga program

Researchers in Ankara, Turkey evaluated twenty patients between the ages of 30 and 50 years who were under routine medical treatment for breast cancer. Eight sessions of a yoga program were included in the program such as warming and breathing exercises, asanas, relaxation in supine position, and meditation. After completion of the study, testing showed that patients' quality of life scores were better than scores obtained before the program. After the yoga sessions, there was a significant decrease in anxiety. It can be concluded that yoga is helpful to achieve relaxation and reduction of stress, helps cancer patients perform daily and routine activities in an easier manner, and increases the quality of life in cancer patients. In addition to yoga, there are foods and supplements that can be of benefit in reducing the risk or improving survival outcomes.

Yoga side effect and danger of Yoga

Even though in most cases yoga is safe, there are times that certain positions could lead to low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, hip or knee problems. For instance, should stands could aggravate neck problems. Back bends could aggravate back problems. If you have a musculoskeletal injury, take it slow and don't try to do every position the yoga instructor recommends to the class.

Yoga and Heart Failure

A regimen of yoga is safe for patients with chronic heart failure and helps reduce signs of inflammation often linked with death. More than 5 million Americans have chronic heart failure, a long-term condition in which the heart no longer pumps blood efficiently to the body's other organs.
Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta who measured the effects of an eight-week yoga regimen on heart failure patients found the yoga routine improved exercise tolerance and quality of life.

Yoga and Weight Loss

Yoga practice is associated with attenuated weight gain in healthy, middle-aged men and women.

Yoga is promoted or weight maintenance, but there is little evidence of its efficacy. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether yoga practice is associated with lower mean 10-year weight gain after age 45. Participants included 15,550 adults, aged 53 to 57 years, recruited to the Vitamin and Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study between 2000 and 2002. Conclusions: Regular yoga practice was associated with attenuated weight gain, most strongly among individuals who were overweight. Although causal inference from this observational study is not possible, results are consistent with the hypothesis that regular yoga practice can benefit individuals who wish to maintain or lose weight.
Altern Ther Health Med. 2005 Jul-Aug;11(4):28-33. Kristal AR, Littman AJ, Benitez D, White E. Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash, USA.

Yoga, Weight Loss, and Teenagers

Teens bent on losing weight may want to bend into the downward dog pose -- or any other yoga position. Researchers at Hampton University in Virginia report that a program combining yoga and breathing exercises helped teens shed unwanted pounds. The study included 60 overweight high school girls and boys who were divided into two groups. One group received 40 minutes of yoga and pranayama (quiet, deep and forced breathing) four times a week for 12 weeks, while those in the control group did their normal activities. After 12 weeks, the average body mass index (BMI) in the yoga / pranayama group went from 22.8 to 21.5 (a 5.7 percent decrease), while the average BMI in the control group increased from 22.3 to 22.4. The decrease in the pranayama group could be attributed to two factors: the pranayama and yoga exercises themselves, and a possible decrease in daily caloric intake by the participants in the pranayama group because of decreased stomach size.

Yoga, Meditation and Consciousness

Increased dopamine tone during meditation-induced change of consciousness.

This is the first in vivo demonstration of an association between endogenous neurotransmitter release and conscious experience. Using 11C-raclopride PET we demonstrated increased endogenous dopamine release in the ventral striatum during Yoga Nidra meditation. Yoga Nidra is characterized by a depressed level of desire for action, associated with decreased blood flow in prefrontal, cerebellar and subcortical regions, structures thought to be organized in open loops subserving executive control. In the striatum, dopamine modulates excitatory glutamatergic synapses of the projections from the frontal cortex to striatal neurons, which in turn project back to the frontal cortex via the pallidum and ventral thalamus. The present study was designed to investigate whether endogenous dopamine release increases during loss of executive control in meditation. Participants underwent two 11C-raclopride PET scans: one while attending to speech with eyes closed, and one during active meditation.