Yoga By Agnes

Chronic Pain

Many types of pain respond well to gentle movement, which can include yoga poses (asana). Research shows that fibromyalgia and arthritis are among the painful and potentially debilitating conditions that can be helped by moderate physical exercise. Yogic breathing techniques (pranayama), meditation, and other tools can also change people’s relationship to pain and the way they experience it.

Pain that lasts 3 months or more—well beyond the time most injuries take to “heal”—is usually considered to be chronic. Chronic pain, including low-back pain, results from the interaction of many causes. This complexity makes it difficult to treat and is one factor behind the opioid crisis in the United States and elsewhere.

The American College of Physicians now recommends yoga and other alternatives to prescription drugs for chronic low-back pain, saying that opioids and more invasive treatments should be used only after other approaches have failed. A number of other key organizations, including the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, agree and have laid out their position in resources such as Moving Beyond Medications.

 Illness Support

Yoga therapy can effectively support people dealing with illnesses like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Regardless of its nature, a major illness brings with it stress, which can in turn worsen symptoms and lengthen recovery times.

Caregivers and healthcare providers can likewise benefit from the stress-reducing effects of yogic practices.

 Mental Health

According to yoga philosophy, mind and body are part of an integrated system; they’re not separate. This means we can work on the mind through targeted practices in the body, and vice versa.

A tool applied in one area—say, a breathing practice—can profoundly affect a completely different area of the body or the mind. For example, a yoga therapist might teach a client a particular type of breathwork (pranayama) to help them address their chronic asthma; if the client practices that breathing exercise regularly, she might find that her long-time anxiety has eased, too.

Yoga therapy can promote general emotional balance and assist with mood regulation. Research into effects on specific concerns is promising, and yoga has been used as an adjunctive therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, and other conditions.

 Neurological Conditions

We now know that the brain can—and does—change throughout our lives. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the symptoms caused by stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neurological conditions can be affected by yoga therapy techniques. Sometimes the symptoms themselves change, even for those with serious conditions. Even when that doesn’t happen, yoga practice helps individuals change their relationship to themselves and the conditions with which they live.

Living with a lifelong neurological condition is a daily effort, both mentally and physically. This reality makes yoga therapy, with its emphasis on creating a more easeful relationship between the mind and body, a supportive and potentially long-term therapy. Neurological conditions present challenges that may surpass the reach of conventional therapeutic interventions. Rather than focusing solely on a symptom or perceiving a progressive neurological disease as something to be “fought,” yoga therapy can provide a personalized self-care resource, with an eye to improving or sustaining day-to-day well-being and quality of life.

According to a pilot study on people with Parkinson’s disease,

“Yoga appears to improve physiological and non-motor factors that can affect [quality of life] over a relatively short period.”

Similarly, a study at Rutger’s University suggests that yoga can help relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS):

“[T]hose who participated were better able to walk for short distances and longer periods of time, had better balance while reaching backwards, fine motor coordination, and were better able to go from sitting to standing. Their quality of life also improved in perceived mental health, concentration, bladder control, walking, and vision, with a decrease in pain and fatigue.”

 Well-Being

Yoga therapy offers many tools for people who don’t have a particular health problem. In fact, yoga practices were originally developed not to cure disease, but to help people reach their highest human potential.

Today, yogic practices–including physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques—can help us transform all kinds of suffering. Many people seek yoga therapy as a way of helping them manage or decrease stress.

Yoga therapy can also support people who want to change habits of addiction or other unhealthy behaviors, improve their mood and ability to concentrate, and get better sleep.

Many of us could use extra support with natural life processes like pregnancy and the postpartum period, or with healthy aging. Yoga practices may help shorten labor and delivery times, and yoga therapy specifically has been shown to be beneficial for osteoporosis. It may even help with balance and fall prevention.