Yoga Therapy for Cancer

About 17 million people develop cancer every year. This disease kills 9.5 million people a year, making it the second leading cause of death in the world. This is one of the most feared diseases, causing physical, psychological and social suffering.

Physical exercise is an essential aspect of cancer treatment. Physical exercise involves both aerobic and strength training and improves physical function, reduces fatigue, and improves the quality of life. All of which are important, not only for cancer patients. However, a difficulty arises because many cancer patients face barriers to performing physical exercise, mainly stemming from physical discomfort and the experience of nausea from treatment. Therefore, yoga has been thought of as a potential alternative exercise for those who cannot perform traditional forms of exercise to maintain health (Buffart et al., 2012).

The benefit of the meta-analysis paper being discussed here is that the reviewers intentionally reviewed yoga interventions with physical postures to differentiate the physical aspects of yogic practices from the mental ones. The paper found that across studies, yoga produced a moderate effect on fatigue and quality of life. Like many other studies, they also found that yoga strongly affects anxiety, depression, and distress. The physical benefits of improved mental health cannot be understated and likely contributes significantly to the battle against cancer. Again, like pregnancy, these life situations pose barriers to traditional forms of exercise. Therefore, the practice of yoga is a phenomenal alternative therapy for individuals in these circumstances.

There is also evidence, which is limited but suggests that yoga may be able to prevent cancer due to its ability to reduce stress, depression, and anxiety, which are known risk factors for cancer (Agarwal et al., 2018).

In addition to its beneficial effects on anxiety, depression and distress caused by cancer, yoga has been found to significantly reduce fatigue, pain, insomnia, nausea and vomiting resulting from cancer or its treatment (Vadiraja et al., 2009).

Yoga Therapy for Breast Cancer

Below is some wonderful research worth sharing if you know someone who has been affected by breast cancer.

Effect of Yoga on the Upper Limb

Yoga practices relieve the pain, strengthen the muscles, and increase the handgrip strength (Mazor et al., 2018). A study conducted among breast cancer survivors found that a 10-week practice of hatha yoga can significantly alleviate shoulder and arm pain and thus improve the quality of life of this vulnerable population (Eyigor et al., 2018)). During the study period, participants practiced the following postures:

• Mountain pose (tadasana)
• Chair pose (utkatasana)
• Extended triangle pose (utthita trikonasana)
• Extended side angle pose (utthita parsvakonasana)
• Warrior 1 (virabhadrasana 1)
• Warrior 2 (virabhadrasana 2)
• Arms over- head and parallel (urdhva hastasana)
• Cow face pose (gomukhasana)
• Bridge pose (setu bandha sarvangasana)

The mentioned poses have a stabilising, toning, and stretching effect on the muscles of the shoulders and arms.

This class below is one for the heart (and breast cancer) because it includes all the postures mentioned in the research above. In Ayurveda and Yoga, we would try and treat the emotional anatomy aspect of pranic flow around the heart. This class also focuses on this prana. The class overall is beneficial for anyone who may be suffering from shoulder and arm pain.