While surgery, radiation and chemotherapy may be standard treatment regimens for cancer, alternative therapies may offer additional benefits to cancer patients. Lifestyle changes, such as incorporating yoga practice into your exercise routine, may improve your outcome and quality of life when dealing with many types of cancer, including prostate cancer. However, consult with your health care provider prior to beginning any new fitness program.
Prostate Cancer Facts
Your prostate is a small gland between your bladder and rectum that produces fluid for semen. Prostate cancer, one of the most common cancers in American men, according to the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, occurs when prostate cells begin to grow uncontrollably. The cancer may remain confined to the prostate or, less commonly, may spread to other parts of your body. Because the gland itself surrounds part of your urethra, growing cancer cells may block all or part of the tube that transports urine from your bladder to your penis. Prostate cancer may also cause impotence, in which you may find it difficult or impossible to develop or maintain an erection. Fortunately, cancer of the prostate often grows slowly, allowing you time to choose the treatment options that work best for you.
Yoga Facts
Yoga is an ancient philosophy meant to balance your entire being through exercise, breathing and meditation. In many parts of the world, yoga is a spiritual practice. In the West, however, yoga serves as a tool for physical fitness and stress reduction, states the University of Maryland Medical Center. Several types of yoga exist to fulfill different physical or spiritual needs. Hatha yoga, in particular, offers a fitness routine designed to improve your balance and flexibility, supplemented with meditations to regulate your breathing, calm your mind and ease stress.
Theory
Practicing yoga as part of a healthy lifestyle may help decrease your risk of developing cancer by strengthening your body and lowering stress levels. Meditation during yoga may help to decrease the depression and anxiety commonly associated with cancer. Furthermore, lifestyle changes such as keeping active may actually slow the progression of nonaggressive prostate cancer, says Dr. Durado Brooks of the American Cancer Society. Additionally, yoga exercises focused on your pelvic area may help to strengthen your urinary sphincter muscle, important in urinary control.
Evidence
Dr. Dean Ornish of the University of California at San Francisco studied groups of men with prostate cancer and discovered that those who adopted healthy lifestyle changes, including regular yoga practice, slowed progression of their disease compared to men who made no lifestyle changes. The men who adopted healthier lifestyles showed decreased blood levels of PSA, a prostate cancer marker, one year after making the changes. These men also showed a decreased rate of growth in their prostate tumors compared to men who made no lifestyle changes.
Other Considerations
In addition to incorporating yoga practice into their fitness programs, the healthy-lifestyle subjects in Ornish's study added aerobic exercise, emotional support and a very-low-fat vegan diet to their routine. While further studies may help to elucidate the specific roles of each of these lifestyle factors on prostate cancer, yoga offers a healthy way to help improve your overall physical and mental fitness.
References
- University of California at San Francisco Medical Center: Patient's Guide to Prostate Cancer
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Yoga
- "The Washington Post"; Diet, Exercise and Reduced Stress Slow Prostate Cancer, Study Finds; Rob Stein; August 2005
- Yoga Journal: Get Hip about Prostate Health
- University of California at San Francisco Medical Center: Lifestyle and Diet May Stop or Reverse Prostate Cancer Progression
