The Healing Powers of Yoga

It turns out that practicing yoga not only improves your strength, flexibility and posture but your downward dog and child pose has it's benefits for cancer patients by reducing the levels of inflammation in the body.

The National Geographic has studied the link between the health of cancer patients practicing yoga and they have discovered many benefits:

1. Yoga helps people relax making the heart rate go down which is great for those with high blood pressure
2. Poses like downward dog, cobra and triangle increase flexibility and strength, which helps bring relief to back pain sufferers
3. The meditative sun salutation and relaxing poses can reduce inflammation, the body's way of reacting to injury and irritation. This is crucial with chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. It's also the culprit for cancer survivors fatigue that follows treatment
4. Yoga has been shown to reduce stress and help people sleep better
5. Yoga can improve crucial levels of glucose and insulin in patients with diabetes

My niece Amanda practicing paddleboard yoga

The National Geographic researchers studied 200 breast cancer survivors who had not practiced yoga before. Half the group didn't continue on with their yoga practice while the other half enjoyed it and continued pursuing yoga. The group that had practiced yoga reported less fatigue and higher levels of vitality three months after treatment had ended. The study didn't end there, the researchers looked into the actual medical benefits on these survivors. Blood tests before and after the yoga trial showed that after three months of yoga practice all three markers for inflammation were lower by 10-15%. 

To see the full article and the benefits yoga has on school children living in poverty please click here. Article Information by: Susan Brink, for National Geographic