Yoga 4 Cancer Research Paper

This exercise can do a lot when it comes to improving your overall physical health. A research from physicians at the HMO Group Health Cooperative in Seattle discovered that yoga can help reduce diabetes, heart disease, and even chronic pain throughout the body. In other words, yoga works on building muscles and increasing endurance.

The ACS also provides certain psychosocial benefits for their patients through support groups, counseling, and exercise programs. The programs are an important component in helping cancer patients and survivors to achieve the optimum quality of life. The ACS has partnered up with the Y in a program called Strive and Thrive: Live strong at the YMCA. This is a health and well-being program for cancer patients and survivors which help to achieve the goal of holistic health. The focus of this exercise program is to “reduce fatigue, improve muscle strength and energy levels, as well as to increase flexibility, endurance, confidence, self-esteem, mood and overall well-being. The program also helps to prevent cancer recurrence while increasing survival rate, “(ACS, 2013).

Yoga has been shown to be effective as an adjunctive treatment for a wide variety of disorders, including epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, and chronic pain (Streeter et al., 2012; van der Kolk, 2014). Streeter et al. (2012) propose that yoga is helpful in such a wide variety of conditions because it reduces allostatic load in the stress response symptom, decreases sympathetic nervous system activity, increases parasympathetic nervous system activity, and increases gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) levels. Overall, yoga is a practice that may help the body return to a more optimal state of

They have provided a culture that provides awareness of the health benefits of doing yoga in daily life.

So how can one make it through these physical obstacles and come out on the other side? We need a strong physical and mental base to guide us through the physical pain. This is what a yoga practice brings to our healing as we strengthen our body through the strengthening of our mind and vice versa. The authors highlight this with an insightful quote

Proponents would argue that it cultivates self-compassion and acceptance – two key areas in healing. Alongside this, the ability to tolerate distressing bodily sensations and increased sensory awareness. Van der Kolk (2014) found that 10 weeks of yoga practice markedly reduced PTSD symptoms of those who failed to respond to other treatment. Physiological benefits tend to be associated with reduced arousal and system regulation, and include improvements in blood pressure, cardiovascular and respiratory efficiency, and autonomic system activation (Mandle et al., 1996; Raub, 2002). Yoga has also been shown to change heart rate variability.

The article studied for the critical synthesis was by Fulambarker et al. (2010), titled Effect of Yoga in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The purpose of the study was to assess the outcomes of practicing yoga on one’s quality of life (QOL) and lung function in COPD patients. The study included 33 patients diagnosed with COPD from the pulmonary clinic in the city of North Chicago.

Context Breast cancer rates are continuously on the rise, and improvements in diagnostic technology have made it possible for patients to undergo treatment as early as possible in attempt for a higher survival rate. However, conventional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy leave patients weak, fatigued, and often depressed. Alternative forms of medicine are being sought out to provide a better experience for these breast cancer patients. This systematic review examines the effects of two such methods: Yoga and acupuncture. Methods An electronic review of CINAHL complete, PubMed, Medline Plus, and ProQuest Medical databases was performed independently by four researchers; a total of 20 different peer-reviewed publications were selected for data extraction and review. Inclusion and exclusion criteria was determined to select articles that applied only to women with breast cancer, or a history of breast cancer, over the age of 35 utilizing yoga and acupuncture as forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Results Although this systematic review provides a wide range of sample populations and study designs, all studies provided a positive outcome from patients using these forms of CAM. Reduced fatigue and depression as well as increased quality of life was seen throughout all studies and reviews. Conclusion The researchers concluded that reviewed data supported the belief that yoga and acupuncture can be used by breast cancer patients to improve overall

Cardiovascular disease is a global burden and by changing risk factors such as increasing physical activity and reducing stress by relaxation can lower the incidence of the disease (Hartley, Dyakova, Holmes, Clarke, Lee, Ernst, & Rees, 2014) The study had 800 participants with high risk factors of the cardiovascular disease and were recruited to 11 study trials. After eight months of this ongoing study, Hartley and Colleagues (2014) found that any form of yoga showed reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and an increase in high-density lipoprotein. Since patients with the cardiovascular disease are unable to perform rigorous exercises, yoga was concluded to be an ideal choice for them. Participants, who

Anita set out to find a cure in India. She spent 6 months there where a yoga master gave her a strict regimen to follow of a diet, herbal remedies, and yoga. He believed in keeping the body balance and ridding your body of the bad. When Anita told him he had cancer, he responded “Cancer is just a word that creates fear. Forget about that word, and let’s just focus on balancing your body. All illness are just symptoms of imbalance. No illness can remain when your entire system is in balance” (pg 50). From this point forward, Anita focused on balancing her body and life.

The practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible; it also improves the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind.

The benefits of Yoga are endless. It effects the human mind and body in a variety of ways. Roughly 15 million Americans practice yoga, annually there is an expected increase of twenty percent in participants in the United States ("Yoga Statistics"). While Yoga is often thought of as a practice that involves circus like poses and seemingly impossible flexibility; it not. Even bedridden patients can gain benefit from imagining themselves going through the poses and practicing breathing techniques that are appropriate to them (Dickenson 24-25). Yoga is not something that you do at the studio and leave behind. It becomes a way of life; leading to healthier habits, improving psychological health, and encouraging spiritual growth. An article on

However, what if chronic back pain could be managed by adding alternative therapies such as yoga to modern treatments? Yoga is an additional therapy that decreases chronic back pain by promoting movement and decreasing pain medication dependence (Lee, Crawford & Schoomaker, 2014). This could radically reduce the dependence on drugs for pain relief and lead to a movement where pain is managed with the help of both modern medicine and affordable alternative remedies. With this in mind, promoting alternative therapies, such as yoga, in collaboration with modern treatments provides a larger range of options with different efficiencies for those with chronic back pain.

Yoga has been proven to change lives in many ways and it’s possible to enjoy the benefits if you put this spiritual science into practice. Remember that it’s not only about making poses but also monitoring your breathing and reflecting through meditation. Below are some of the ways in which yoga changes and improves life;

Physical exercises, majorly Yoga is a must exercise recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen a body. The University of Maryland Medical Center has published a report which states that a regular physical exercise strengthens the immune system to develop a strong resistance for arthritis, asthma, depression, obesity, diabetes, epilepsy and irritable bowel syndrome. A study published in the November 2011 in “Archives of Internal Medicine” revealed that the people who do regular exercise are less exposed to chronic low back pain than the patients who go for a medical cure, relying on clinical medicines.