Yoga for Cancer: Alternative Therapy
Before we discuss how yoga can benefit a mesothelioma patient, first we have to comprehend what yoga is. Yoga started 5,000+ years ago in India and is currently very popular and growing in Western nations. It is an entire body activation, including working with breathing, stretching, postures, stances and meditation. These make a concordance and harmony between your psyche, body and soul and helps clear your mind from traumatic and daily stresses.
Yoga instructors promote yoga as a method for sustaining health and preventing/counteracting sickness. They assert that the yoga stances will invigorate your sensory system, make your muscles and joints more adaptable, and help relax your brain and body. The activities joined with breathing enhance your oxygen and blood supply. Thus, helping your circulation and breathing, which promotes general wellbeing. There are around 80 common/known postures with a few unique styles of yoga including Hatha, Iyengar, and Astanga yoga. Some are very strenuous, while others are gentler on the body and focus primarily on meditation and breathing techniques.
What Yoga Includes
Clothes & Items Needed
Why Individuals With Mesothelioma & Cancer Are Choosing Yoga
Similarly, along with many alternative treatments and therapies, one of the principle reasons that mesothelioma and cancer patients are choosing yoga is because it provides a wonderful feeling, starting from within, starting from the soul. While yoga does not provide a cure for any type of cancer, yoga improves physical and emotional wellbeing.
Besides resting the mind, body, and spirit, along with enhancing circulation, flexibility, and producing energy throughout the body, tender yoga postures for cancer patients can work magic… hypothetically. When using yoga as a alternative therapy for cancer, it focuses on removing poisons collected during the traditional cancer treatments. Yoga asanas animate muscles, as well as increases blood circulation which improves the lymphatic blow flow in the body, all of which upgrades the body’s inner cleansing procedures.
What Mesothelioma & Cancer Patients Are Saying
Some patients with cancer who have performed and taken yoga classes say that it quiets their mind. With this sense of calmness, it allows them to adapt better to their chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Others have proclaimed that it decreases side effects and reduces pain. For example, they are turning to yoga to appease their sleeplessness, rest issues, depression, and discomfort. Cancer patients who perform yoga as complementary therapy amid their treatment frequently allude to their yoga as the “only thing that keeps them going.”
Regardless of how wiped out a mesothelioma or cancer patient is from all the medicines and treatments being administered, they seem to always find the energy to return to their yoga… regardless of how little vitality they have left. Many admit that they have found gentle, therapeutic relief by simply performing several yoga poses and relaxing their mind.
Research of Connecting Yoga with Cancer Cure
There is no scientific proof to demonstrate that yoga can cure cancer. In any case, there are a few studies that propose it helps cancer patients sleep better (which promotes healing) and it aids in coping with anxiety by calming the mind.
A few US studies, as of now, are taking a deeper look into whether yoga can decrease the physical and emotional side effects that is very common amongst cancer patients.
Precautionary Measures
If you choose to truly use yoga as a complementary therapy under the directions from a qualified educator, here are common guidelines to follow:
• Do not perform a yoga class immediately after eating. Allow at least 1.5 – 2 hours after consuming a meal.
• For safety reasons, it is recommend to not do yoga alone at your home until you’ve taken a couple of classes or have hired a personal instructor.
• Before starting any yoga classes for the first time, inform your instructor of any medical conditions as well as bone and joint problems.
• If you come across a stance or pose that hurts or is very difficult to perform, stop immediately let your educator know.
• Never attempt advanced stances without the help and guide of a professional yoga instructor.
• Women who are pregnant should not practice certain stances. Speak to your instructor, they will (should) know which positions are unsuitable for expecting mothers.
• Since yoga helps detoxify your body, after every yoga session, make sure to drink a lot of water!
Final Thoughts & Key Points to Take With You
By adding yoga to your treatment plan, a patient could:
- Build strength safely
- Promote flexibility which increases energy flow
- Promote wellness & immune system stimulation
- Build bone density
- Remove toxins from the body
- Empower themselves and improve their quality of life.
Whether you are a current mesothelioma cancer patient or cancer survivor; whether you are newly diagnosed or currently being administered chemotherapy and radiation; whether you are searching for an alternative therapy or looking for another way to build more strength… yoga can support your recovery and help make you strong again. Yoga cultivates blood circulation, strength, energy, flexibility, and a balance in your life during all phases of ones cancer journey. Yoga could even reveal a sense of gratitude and confidence in your life, of your life, that you have possibly not previously known existed. Yoga is peace.
Namaste.
