Question
How is yoga therapy beneficial for patients with COPD?
Answer
Yoga therapy is beneficial to COPD patients and can be used as an adjunct therapy with conventional occupational therapy. Patients with COPD, who practice yoga, can improve their lung function, according to a study by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders. The study, presented at CHEST 2013, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), found that lung function, shortness of breath, and inflammation all showed significant improvement after patients completed 12 weeks of training.
An estimated 24 million Americans have COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. Patients with COPD have trouble pushing used air out of their lungs, making it difficult to take in healthy new air. Although there is no cure for COPD, a patient’s quality of life can be improved by controlling symptoms, such as shortness of breath. COPD, most commonly caused by cigarette smoking, affects both men and women, and often, symptoms are seen in people in their 40's.
The study investigated whether simple, structured yoga training affects the level of inflammation, shortness of breath, and quality of life in patients with stable COPD. This study included 29 stable patients with COPD, who received yoga training in a format that included the use of physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), cleansing techniques, (kriyas), meditation, and a relaxation technique (shavasan) for 1 hour, twice a week, for 4 weeks. Following the 4-week period, patients were trained for 1 hour every 2 weeks, with the remaining sessions completed at home. Patients were evaluated on the assessment of lung function, breathing, quality of life, and inflammation status. A repeat assessment was done at the end of the 12-week training session. All parameters showed significant improvement at the end of the 12-week period. According to Dr. Guleria. “We found that yoga can be a simple, cost-effective method that can help improve the quality of life in patients with COPD.”
When I started 20 years ago, that was not the case. We taught our clients to maximize what little they had left. Now we are have seen, yoga can improve lung function. They are able to inhale and get the oxygen in, but it is the muscle structure (diaphragm) that forces the air out and removes the toxins so that fresh oxygen can come in. This is where the gas exchange starts to break down.
There are many impacts of yoga on COPD.
- A new study found that yoga could be beneficial for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an incurable lung disease that includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both.
- Study participants showed improvement in lung function, shortness of breath, and inflammation after practicing yoga for 12 weeks, according to a press release by the American College of Chest Physicians.
- "We found that yoga can be a simple, cost-effective method that can help improve quality of life in patients with COPD," said study presenter Randeep Guleria, M.D.
- For the study, 29 COPD patients practiced yoga twice a week for an hour. Their yoga routine included yoga asanas, pranayama, kriyas (cleansing techniques, and meditation.
- COPD, which affects approximately 24 million Americans is often caused by cigarette smoking, but controlling symptoms can help improve the quality of life for patients, researchers said.
Yoga is versatile. It is wonderful for dealing with the aspects of depression. The quote "Move a muscle, change a thought" applies here. Using meditation and movement practices can decrease anxiety significantly and regulate stress. Yoga is a very appealing way to manage symptoms better without heading toward medication automatically. The scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are closely aligned. Impacting someone physically is going to affect their mental health, and working with mental health affects physical health. Yoga is wonderful as we are able to bring in all of those aspects and work on the whole person at once. Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years. It is only recently that we have been doing the research and studying the impact of yoga on different diagnoses and functions.
