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Yoga Articles

Yoga for breast cancer - Research shows that a regular gentle practice can improve survivors' quality of life.
by Sarah Snowdon

Recent studies indicate that yoga can yield significant health benefits and improve quality of life for breast cancer survivors. A seven-week yoga program for cancer survivors led by researchers in the faculty of kinesiology at the University of Calgary examined the physical and psychological benefits of an alternative, less rigorous form of yoga. Women practiced in small groups of 10 that included a large number of breast cancer survivors, and each participant received enough individual attention to ensure she could safely perform the exercises. The style used was a modified version of hatha yoga called yoga therapy, influenced by the Iyengar tradition of yoga and the study of kinesiology. The yoga postures (or asanas) are modified for people who are stiff, immobile, injured, ill or under extreme stress. The study participants showed significant physical and psychosocial improvements such as diminished irritability, stress and depression.

"This form of modified therapeutic yoga has been specifically tweaked based on how much exercise is possible for cancer survivors," says Susi Hately Aldous, a Calgary-based certified yoga instructor and owner of Functional Synergy, a yoga therapy studio that specializes in designing custom yoga programs for people with injury or illness.

As a yoga instructor, she saw the benefits firsthand and then connected with researchers at the faculty of kinesiology. "This idea came from the way I teach my classes. Particularly if someone is sick or in chronic pain, I will walk around the room and make sure they are working at their own level," says Hately Aldous.

So while an individual's body may be tight initially, stretching and strengthening through yoga therapy can dramatically alter physical agility over time. "It's amazing what a 65-year-old body can do," says Hately Aldous. Yoga therapy enables students to move slowly and safely into the modified posture, concentrating initially on relaxing their body, breathing fully and developing awareness of the sensations in their body and the thoughts in their mind. A DVD is slated to be produced early next year that will mimic the program completed in the study.

Hately Aldous adds that while the benefits of yoga (which dates back to more than 5,000 years ago) have long been well known in the Eastern world, the West has yet to trust its therapeutic effectiveness. "It's true that many people don't trust a new therapeutic approach until it's been researched. A solid referral network and word of mouth have been key in spreading the good word about yoga and its benefits," says Hately Aldous.

In another study, researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center focused on 61 women who had had surgery for breast cancer and were undergoing six weeks of radiation treatment. The women who took twice-weekly yoga classes in addition to radiation treatment reported significantly improved physical functioning when compared to those with only radiation. The yoga group had higher scores in almost every area and reported less fatigue and fewer problems with daytime sleepiness.

"Everyone was very open to the idea of conducting the research," says Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, director of the Integration Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston. "The main challenge was getting people to practice the yoga on a regular basis," he says.

Until recently, the medical benefits of yoga had not been sufficiently researched due to lack of funding. "Although the study was small and preliminary, it's one of the few to try to rigorously measure the benefits of this form of exercise," notes Cohen. "Many medical centres in Canada realize the psychosocial benefits that yoga has to offer and provide programs based on this knowledge. Yoga allows us to age more gracefully and reduces the medical burden of an aging population," he adds.

The National Cancer Institute in the U.S. recently awarded Cohen and his team US$2.4 million to study the effects of Tibetan yoga on women with breast cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. It was the largest grant ever given for the study of Tibetan yoga in cancer patients.

(Printed in Canadian Living Magazine, 2007)

Into your Zone, Yoga for the Athlete
by Susi Hately Aldous

Athletes have long searched for a means to assist in enhancing performance. I remember as a rugrat athlete in the seventies and as a competitive teenaged athlete in the eighties, we focused on the physical workout. This consisted of more and more sets, reps, interval trainings and time trials. Our knowledge of mental focus was its association with gut determination. Stretching was something we did while our heart rates returned to normal.

Athletics have changed since the eighties, as have the concepts of training. We understand that with the benefits of developing mental focus we can more effectively access the zone of peak performance. Stretching has developed far past sitting in a runner’s stretch and bouncing head to knee. We know what to do for full fitness and have experienced the benefits. But we are caught in a time crunch with workouts, family, friends, and jobs. How do we get out of it?

It appears that more and more athletes are leveraging their limited time by rounding out their training programs with yoga. Yoga offers efficient and nicely packaged sessions for balancing mind and body, improving mental focus, flexibility and breath regulation. And the switch seems to be helping. Frank Zane, three-time Mr. Olympia, follows a practice of yoga. The Florida Marlins have incorporated yoga into their training programs, as have the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Mets, and the Miami Dolphins. And it is not just for the pros. Amateur athletes such as martial artists, cyclists, mountain bikers, snowboarders, swimmers and runners are all gracing local yoga venues to loosen tight muscles, centre themselves and reduce stress.

It is a good bang for your buck, but how does it work? One of the fundamental physiological effects of yoga is the balancing and modification of the two branches of the involuntary nervous system – the sympathetic branch and the para-sympathetic branch. While the former is well known to dominate in the face of a challenge (e.g. fight or flight) and necessary for training and competition, the latter undoes tension. According to Dr. Herbert Benson, undoing tension enables the body tissues to renew and regenerate, creating an ideal environment for improving strength or healing from an injury. Dr. Benson has also noted that our sympathetic systems are generally overactive anyway and a consistent practice of yoga helps to recalibrate the situation.

So if your workouts are lagging; you want to improve your focus and flexibility; or simply ease race day tension, you may want to try yoga. I will leave the last words to legendary basketball player, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who once said, “You have to be able to center yourself; don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as with your body.”

(Printed in Impact Magazine, 2001)

Have you ever noticed how little space we have in our brain?

It is cluttered up
full of so many thousands of things;
it has very little space.
If you journey into yourself,
empty all the content that you have collected
and go very, very, very deeply,
then there is that vast space,
that so-called emptiness,
that is full of energy.
And in that state alone
there is that which is most sacred.......

j.krishnamurti (a wise indian man)

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Yoga Eases MS Symptoms

MONDAY, June 14 (HealthDayNews) -- After doing yoga for six months, people with multiple sclerosis (MS) had a significant reduction in fatigue.

That finding comes from an Oregon Health & Science University study, the first randomized controlled trial of yoga in people with MS.

While yoga eased tiredness, it didn't have any effect on alertness, attention or other measures of cognitive function, the study found.

The researchers concluded yoga was as effective as a traditional aerobic exercise program in improving measures of fatigue, which is a common and potentially disabling symptom of MS.

The 90-minute yoga classes were held once a week. Participants were taught up to 19 yoga poses and also did breathing, visualization and meditation exercises. They were encouraged to practice each day at home.
Another group of MS patients took part in weekly aerobic exercise classes and also did aerobics at home each day.

People in both the yoga and aerobic exercise groups had reduced MS-related fatigue symptoms. It's not clear how it works, the study said.

One of the study authors said any kind of exercise seems to help.
"This is true whether the regular exercise is yoga, swimming, using a stationary bicycle or any other physical activity. Sometimes the effects are quite dramatic and other times less so. But everyone with MS who exercises regularly reports benefit," study co-author Dr. Dennis Bourdette, a professor of neurology and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Oregon, said in a prepared statement.

The study appeared in the current issue of Neurology.

More information
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has more about exercise and MS.
(SOURCE: Oregon Health & Sciences University, news release, June 8, 2004)
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