HHS HealthBeat (November 20, 2007)

Yoga and breast cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Recovering from breast cancer can be stressful. Gentle yoga can be relaxing. A researcher says breast cancer survivors who try yoga could find themselves feeling better about their lives.

Alyson Moadel of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York looked at patients – mostly with early stage cancer – who started yoga classes. Her study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Moadel says women not currently receiving chemotherapy seemed to be doing better emotionally and physically, and all women were socially more connected.

``They felt less stress, more relaxed – better able to deal with day to day symptoms and side effects of the treatment and the cancer.’’ (8 seconds)

Moadel says women who feel they’re up to it, and whose doctors agree, could try yoga.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May, 26 2008