Based on a study by the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), yoga might very well be the easiest and most cost-efficiency method in improving the quality of life for patients suffering from inflammatory lung disease. The study also discovered that lung function, shortness of breath and inflammation all showed a rather significant improvement in Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients upon completion of 12 weeks training.
Patients suffering from COPD have difficulties pushing the used air out of their lungs. This also means that they have a hard time taking in healthy new air. At the moment, there is still no known cure for COPD. However, researchers have indicated that the quality of life still can be improved by controlling symptoms such as shortness of breath. COPD is a condition most commonly brought about by smoking cigarettes and it affects both men and women. Usually, the symptoms start to appear when such individuals are in their 40s.
“COPD is a systemic inflammatory disease that causes difficulty breathing. We investigated to see whether simple, structured yoga training affects the level of inflammation, shortness of breath, and quality of life in patients with stable COPD,” stated study presenter Randeep Guleria, professor and head, department of pulmonary medicine and sleep disorders at AIIMS, New Delhi. The study involved twenty nine stable patients who suffer from COPD. They received yoga classes in a routine that makes use of physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), cleansing techniques, (kriyas), meditation, and a relaxation technique (shavasan). Every week, they attended two 1-hour sessions and this continued on for a month.
After they completed that entire month, they had sessions once every two weeks. For the remaining sessions, they did it from their own homes. After which, patients were evaluated upon assessment of lung function, breathing, quality of life and inflammation status. Then, the same assessment was repeated again at the end of the 12-week training session. Based on the results collected at the end of the 12 week period, all of the patients showed significant improvements. “We found that yoga can be a simple, cost-effective method that can help improve quality of life in patients with COPD,” explained Randeep. For the full story, feel free to check it out from here.
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