Yoga can reduce anxiety, fatigue and emotional distress in cancer survivors, research suggests. For many patients, the mental and physical effects of cancer can last long after their treatment ends. Up to 95% of cancer survivors experience sleep disturbances or insomnia at some point, often as a result of ongoing stress.
US researchers developed a four-week YOCAS intervention involving 18 gentle hatha and restorative yoga poses, breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques. This included two 75-minute yoga classes led by an instructor and at least 30 minutes per week of practice at home.
Both hatha and restorative yoga focus on slow, gentle movements and still postures using props.
Some 206 cancer survivors took part in the yoga programme, while 204 others received standard care. Three-quarters of the participants were breast cancer survivors.
The study found the YOCAS group scored significantly lower for mood disturbance, anxiety and fatigue than the control group after completing the month-long plan.
This, in turn, led to improvements in average insomnia levels, evaluated using the Insomnia Severity Index, which asks patients questions about their sleep.
The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in Chicago.
Dr Fumiko Chino, an associate professor in breast radiation oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center and an ASCO expert in survivorship, said: “This large, randomised study shows that structured yoga may help relieve some of the most consistently reported and hard-to-treat issues in cancer survivorship, leading to decreased insomnia.
“It’s an important advance because it offers survivors, who are likely already managing multiple medications, a non-pharmaceutical solution for reducing four different side effects at once.”
Study leader Dr Yuri Choi, a research assistant professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said: “There is no single gold standard behavioural treatment available to survivors for treating overall mood disturbance, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia.
“By demonstrating that YOCAS intervention improves all four of these cancer-related side effects and showing how improvements in overall mood disturbance, anxiety, and fatigue influence yoga’s effect on insomnia, this trial helps to fill that gap.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
