Yoga supports recovery from cancer

A few newspaper articles have caught my eye in recent months about scientific advancements in cancer treatments. This particular article - Yoga can reduce anxiety and insomnia for people living with cancer, study finds | Cancer | The Guardian - is the one I like the most, because it applies to everyone recovering from cancer, regardless of the type.

The US study followed 410 cancer survivors. The group was split in half: 204 people received “standard survivorship care”, and the remaining 206 took part in a 4-week programme focusing on Hatha and restorative yoga, in addition to the standard after-care.

Those in the yoga group attended two 75-minute yoga instructor-led classes, and did at least 30 minutes of home yoga per week.

The feedback given by the participants noted three major benefits:

1.       Participants of the yoga programme “experienced meaningfully less overall mood disturbance”.

They felt mentally and emotionally balanced and stable. Integrating breathing and mindfulness aspects of yoga equips us to handle and ride the variations of emotions when navigating a health challenge as serious and individual as cancer.

When the mind is stable, we can maintain our focus and the daily behaviours necessary to keep the physical body in balance to promote lasting health.

2.       Participants experienced “less fatigue”.

When we move with intention, and practise breathing exercises that nourish our internal environment – our organs – the physical body responds positively; we are literally flooding our system with life-giving energy.

Many yoga poses encourage smoother and better digestive health. When the digestive system is functioning optimally, our intake and output is in flow and our energy levels stabilise.

3.       Participants also experienced “less anxiety”.

Yoga has a way of focusing the mind in the present moment. We need to concentrate on our body, the movements, on our breath... Although it may be gentle exercise, the mind and body have to cooperate as one being.

In practising yoga, there is an opportunity to befriend the body again, to reconnect and be present with it as it undergoes surgeries and medical therapies. The ability to focus the mind in the present moment is an invaluable tool when navigating these very real and stressful realities of cancer.

Although the majority of participants in this study had been treated for breast cancer, I found yoga to be invaluable for supporting treatment and recovery of colon cancer. Ayurvedic wisdom posits that the root of good health originates in the gut. Science is now able to prove the many links between the gut and our physical and mental wellbeing.

Restorative forms of yoga include Yin Yoga and Hatha Yoga. Find a local teacher or studio in your area, so that you can learn and benefit from the experience and knowledge of someone in real life . For an at-home practice, check out Yoga with Adriene.

I write about the positive benefits that regular yoga practice and exercise had on my treatment and recovery from cancer, and how these forms of movement generate energy for the body to heal. You can find a copy via Amazon. 

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