Yoga Therapy In Cancer Prevention and Healing

By Pauline Shakti Tait, SYT

Pauline Shakti Tait, SYT

More Special Articles

Yoga Therapy In Cancer Prevention and Healing

Risk factors for cancer include the foods we eat, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol, and pollution. Stress can influence the immune system and contribute to the development and progress of cancer.

Stress is commonly caused by high expectations, being overworked, life challenges and many other factors we face on an almost daily basis. This lifestyle often results in eating on-the-go, lack of sleep and tight muscles.

Yoga practice counteracts the results of a fast-paced life. Yoga poses, deep breathing, concentration, relaxation, and meditation all help combat stress. Its practice may also create a heightened awareness to our health, with additional health benefits.

For example, in yoga poses such as spinal twists, blood circulation is stimulated, and internal organs compress to release blood filled with metabolic byproducts and toxins. After the pose fresh blood flows in filled with oxygen and building blocks for healing body tissue.

Even if you are unable to do yoga poses, breathing exercises can also reduce stress and improve the flow of blood and lymph, which is rich in immune cells.

Breathing exercises in yoga bring fresh oxygen into the bloodstream to help eliminate waste products. With increased oxygen, the mind becomes clear and energy increases. This can be especially helpful when the body is stressed, or going through medical treatments such as chemotherapy.

In yoga, prana refers to a universal principle of energy responsible for the body's life, heat and maintenance. It is believed that this subtle energy acts as a body cleanser when it moves into the body through the optimal breathing that results from yoga practice.

The physical benefits of yoga practice have become well known. Improvements in range of motion, flexibility, strength, relaxation, as well as a sense of well-being are common.

Yoga enthusiasts also report even deeper benefits by experiencing their essential nature.

People who practice yoga have reported that it reconnects them to their inner feelings and sensations. We are typically connected to the external world, losing awareness of our own physical, mental, and emotional selves. Yoga includes meditation practice to quiet the mind and help reconnect us with our inner self.

A yoga session leads to feelings of being centered and energized.

Individualized structural yoga therapy is the first step to capturing yoga's benefits safely and successfully.