Yoga Therapy for Cancer Patients and Survivors

By Angie Hemesath, certified Yoga Instructor, ACE

Yoga has been around for thousands of years originating in India and has gained a strong popularity in the United States for good reason. Yoga as therapy presents a balanced whole body exercise including a combination of physical postures (poses), rhythmic breathing, and meditation.

Coming from a Sanskrit word “Yuj”, yoga stands for the union or joining together of body, mind, and spirit. It is a philosophy, not a religion, of creating an internal sense of well-being that promotes health and vitality. Continued clinical research/documenttation is recognizing the many physical and mental health benefits that can improve the quality of life for cancer patients both during and after treatment as a result of a regular yoga practice.

The gentle and balanced movements of therapeutic yoga poses (geared to cancer patients) offer relief for individuals who may be limited with their activities due to pain, dealing with scar tissue from surgery, depression, fatigue, anxiety, and other symptoms of cancer and chemotherapy or radiation. In addition, strong evidence is associating physical activity with survival benefits as it stimulates the body’s natural anti-cancer defenses.

The physical benefits of yoga for cancer patients and survivors include stimulation of the muscles improving strength, muscle tone, balance, and flexibility. Also, the combination of yoga poses and relaxed deep breathing increases the flow of oxygen-rich blood.

• Strength/Joint stability: Supporting your own body weight in many yoga poses improves your strength (ie: tree pose, stand on one leg for balance).
• Balance: A good way to build core strength.
• Flexibility: Gentle movements and stretching improves range-of-motion in tight areas leading to lesser pain and greater mobility.
• Oxygen-rich blood: Delivers vital nutrients to tired cells and also helps to cleanse the body of toxins due to cancer treatments. 

Common negative side-effects of cancer, chemotherapy and radiation are fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, depression and stress, each one affecting the other, all reducing the body’s natural immune system, thus, all relating to further decline in health. Yoga for cancer can be very beneficial in combating all of these!

• Fatigue: Yoga therapy helps to regulate the stress hormone (cortisol) that tends to deplete energy and can be related to a reduced survival rate for certain cancer patients.
• Anxiety: Deep breathing and meditation exercises help to reduce tension enabling the individual to experience a greater sense of ease.
• Isomnia: A regular yoga therapy practice can help individuals to fall asleep and have a better quality of sleep.
• Depression: Coordinating the physical and mental aspects of yoga offers the cancer patient/survivor an arsenal of coping skills from which to draw from.
• Stress: Yes, silence truly is golden! Practicing being quiet and still helps the patient/survivor to feel more calm internally, thus, helping to reduce the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, that may be related to the progression of cancer.
  

Whether you are undergoing treatment for cancer or a survivor, seek the advice of your doctor to make sure you are healthy enough to attend a yoga class. Do keep in mind that yoga therapy is not a “treatment” for cancer, but rather, an alternative method to deal with the symptoms of cancer and cancer treatments.

Learning new coping skills through mind-body practices, such as yoga, can help the cancer patient/survivor make a more positive transition back to everyday life. So, is Yoga therapy worth taking a closer look at? You bet!


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