Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that is becoming more and more common in America. This is a disorder in which a person has chronic pain that spans the entire body and can cause mild to serve tenderness in the joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues. Many patients may experience severe anxiety, depression, fatigue, headaches, and even insomnia.
Recently I was searching interesting topics on sciencedaily.com and came across their October, 2010 article “Yoga Can Counteract Fibromyalgia, Study Suggests”. As I read the article I was intrigued that it contained information suggesting that Oregon Health & Science University researched “53 female study subjects previously diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The women were randomly assigned to two research groups. The first group participated in an eight-week yoga program, which included gentle poses, meditation, breathing exercises and group discussions. The second group of women — the control group — received standard medication treatments for fibromyalgia.”
What this article/study eventually concluded was that the yoga group “revealed that yoga appears to assist in combating a number of serious fibromyalgia symptoms, including pain, fatigue, stiffness, poor sleep, depression, poor memory, anxiety and poor balance. All of these improvements were shown to be not only statistically but also clinically significant, meaning the changes were large enough to have a practical impact on daily functioning. For example, pain was reduced in the yoga group by an average of 24 percent, fatigue by 30 percent and depression by 42 percent.”
Wow! Imagine doing something great for your mind and body that also alleviates your pain! Consider this bit of info from the article: “Fibromyalgia affects between 11 million and 15 million Americans. The annual costs for health care for these patients have been estimated at $20 billion.” That’s a lot of people that could benefit from this knowledge, not only physically, but also financially!
Dr Tonya Ingalls, D.C.
REFERENCE:
ScienceDaily. Yoga Can Counteract Fibromyalgia, Study Suggests. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101014083119.htm. (Oct. 14, 2010)
Tags: Fibromyalgia, fitness news, Yoga
Categories : Fitness News
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