Yoga eases pain of breast cancer patients

CANCER doctors should prescribe yoga to patients struggling to overcome pain and fatigue, experts have said.

The ancient Indian practice was shown to significantly boost energy levels and emotional wellbeing of women with breast cancer, over and above conventional exercise.

It is not known precisely how yoga improves the experience of being treated for cancer.

However, scientists say the fact it lowers levels of stress hormones and improves sleep patterns may be significant.

A study of 850 women with operable breast cancer found that those who took regular exercise not including yoga were more than twice as likely to experience worsening pain following the start of treatment than those practising yoga as well as conventional exercise.

Patients in the yoga group also found it easier to keep up their general levels of day-to-day activity.

Dr Nita Nair, an oncologist who led the study at the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai, said previous research had indicated that yoga lowers levels of cortisol, a hormone linked to breast cancer growth, as well as improving the body’s immune system.

A separate US study found that yoga significantly boosted the quality of sleep in cancer patients.