When you think of "exercise", what's the first image that pops up in your head? A person jogging? A gym? What about yoga? In exploring the benefits of exercise, it's sometimes easy to ignore the less "mainstream" forms of exercise such as yoga. Seen as a form of mind-body therapy, yoga is thought to have many benefits for psychological and physical aspects.
In a recent randomized control trial, breast cancer survivors with cancer related fatigue either underwent educational sessions (control group) or 12 weeks of Iengar yoga (intervention group). Results showed that those who did the yoga showed improvement in biological inflammatory factors (e.g., a transcription factor called NFkB) and even changed the gene expression to reduce inflammatory response in their bodies. Both groups also showed improvements in perceived stress, and the yoga group especially improved in terms of their vigor.
Although this study applies to a very specific group of people, it adds another piece to the "yoga puzzle" and supports the idea that yoga is not just a mind exercise, but also has important physical benefits. So the next time you're considering taking on a new form of physical activity, consider yoga!
Source:
Bower, J. E., Garet, D., Sternlieb, B., Ganz, P. A., Irwin, M. R., Olmstead, R. and Greendale, G. (2012), Yoga for persistent fatigue in breast cancer survivors. Cancer, 118: 3766–3775. doi: 10.1002/cncr.26702
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