Healthcare

Significant effect from Yoga practice showed that it can improve sleep and overall quality of life in cancer survivors, also improve fatigue.

According to this new findings, the cancer survivors showed also reduce the need of sleep medication about 21% compared with control group who raise the sleep medication by 5% during same period.

George W. Sledge, Jr., MD, president-elect of American Society of Clinical Oncology (AMCO) said that during a presscast, “this is a readily applicable approach that improves quality of life and reduces medicine intake in cancer survivors. This is a real positive.”

Dr. Sledge pointed out that this study is an a creative application of scientific technique to complementary and alternative medicine approaches.

He said, “physicians frequently have trouble discussing these approaches with patients but this study applies real science to the issue. This emphasizes the increasing importance of ameliorating complications of therapy in long-term cancer survivors, as there are literally millions of patients to whom this might be applicable in the United States.”

The Yoga program designer (YOCAS: Yoga for Cancer Survivors) and lead author of the study, Karen Mustian, PhD, MPH, professor of radiation oncology and community and preventive medicine at the University of Rochester in New York, said, “in conclusion, we can state that it is possible that Hatha yoga classes and restorative yoga classes might be useful to cancer survivors in communities across the United States in helping these side effects that impair quality of life.”

The yoga classes includes breathing exercises, gentle Hatha and restorative yoga postures, and mindfulness exercises by 75 minutes long and attended twice a week for 4 weeks.

For the study purpose, Dr. Mustian said, “the patients had to have completed treatment between 2 and 24 months prior to enrolling in the study. They needed to have a sleep disturbance of 3 or greater on a scale ranging from 0 to 10.”