Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing to boost physical and mental wellbeing and it originated in India about 5,000 years ago. Numerous studies have suggested that there are health benefits associated with practicing yoga but few of them include sufficiently rigorous scientific measurement. However, Ohio University have now carriedout a large randomised controlled trial that included biological measures that studied the physical benefits of practising yoga for women following treatment for breast cancer.
The women taking part in the study had completed all breast cancer treatments before the start of the study and only yoga novices were recruited for the randomised, controlled clinical trial. The participants practiced yoga in small groups twice a week for 12 weeks. Women making up the control group received the same yoga sessions once the trial was over. During the study, they were instructed to go about their normal routines and not to do yoga.
Each yoga group included between four and 20 women who practiced the same poses during 90-minute sessions twice a week. Researchers encouraged the women to practice at home, as well. Participants logged their total weekly practice time.
All of the women in the study completed a number of surveys assessing their fatigue, energy level, depressive symptoms, sleep quality, physical activities and food consumption. They also gave baseline blood samples that researchers used to measure levels of several inflammation-related proteins. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 76 and were two months to three years past the latest surgical or radiation treatment. Immediately after the active phase of the trial ended, the women in the yoga group reported, on average, a 41 percent drop in fatigue and a 12 percent higher vitality score compared to the non-yoga group.
At the six-month point of the study and three months after the formal yoga practice had ended results showed that on average, fatigue was 57 percent lower in women who had practiced yoga compared to the non-yoga group, and their inflammation was reduced by up to 20 percent.
"This showed that modest yoga practice over a period of several months could have substantial benefits for breast cancer survivors," said Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study.
"We also think the results could easily generalise to other groups of people who have issues with fatigue and inflammation," said Professor Kiecolt-Glaser.
Chronic inflammation is linked to numerous health problems, including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease, as well as the frailty and functional decline that can accompany aging.
A secondary analysis showed that more frequent yoga practice produced larger changes in fatigue, vitality and depressive symptoms as well as between an average 4 to 6 percent reduction in two of the three pro-inflammatory cytokines. The yoga group also reported significantly improved sleep compared to the control group.
"Yoga has many parts to it -- meditation, breathing, stretching and strengthening. We think the breathing and meditation components were really important in terms of some of the changes we were seeing," Professor Kiecolt-Glaser said..
The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
