Cancer patients who practise YOCAS yoga can benefit from reduced levels of inflammation – helping their road to recovery and preventing cancer from returning.
The finding comes from research led by the University of Rochester Medical Centre in the US.
Eligible participants were cancer survivors with insomnia. For the study, more than 500 people – with an average age of 56 – took part in a randomised control trial. All participants had received cancer treatment between two months and five years earlier.
They were allocated to do either the Yoga for Cancer Survivors programme (YOCAS), which includes gentle Hatha and restorative yoga, or a placebo programme which is part of the Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Care Plans initiative and involves recommendation-based health education.
About the study
Both groups took part in two 75-minute sessions each week for a month and each was monitored using a series of blood tests throughout the four-week period and checked for levels of inflammation.
Inflammation, both acute and chronic, is associated with primary and secondary cancer development and progression, as well as a number of toxicities that negatively affect cancer treatment adherence and survival.
Those who took up the YOCAS yoga had “significantly lower levels of pro-inflammatory markers,” when compared with the group attending education classes.
Researchers said: “Clinicians should consider prescribing YOCAS yoga for survivors with inflammation, which may lead to a high chronic toxicity burden and increased risk of progression, recurrence and second cancers.”
A previous study, Effect of YOCAS yoga on sleep, fatigue, and quality of life found YOCAS yoga significantly improves sleep quality and quality of life, while also reducing fatigue and sleep medication use among survivors.
It’s likely the improvements in the health of the cancer survivors as a result of the recent YOCAS interventions can in part be attributed to having helped their insomnia, with all the accompanying health benefits this delivers.
More: www.hcmmag.com/YOCAS
