Yoga Found to Lessen Side Effects of Prostate Cancer Treatment

Prostate cancer is a worry in my family as well as colon cancer. My father and his father were afflicted respectively.  As stubborn bottled up French men that the are / were, there's never any discussion about the cancers, feelings, side effects, etc.  My father had his prostate completely removed about 3 years ago.  There seems to be no side effects from it, but he doesn't talk much about it and if questioned, no elaboration really occurs. 

I want to give a cheer to all of the men that took part in the study mentioned below.  To go through battling prostate cancer and then sharing that battle with others is very important to us all.  Thank you.

Past statistical studies of yoga have found that only 28% of yoga practitioners are male, but a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine reached some conclusions that may entice more men to get down with some downward dogs.

Between May 2013 and June 2014, 45 prostate cancer patients participated in twice-weekly, 75-minute-long yoga classes taught by trained Eischens yoga instructors. The effect of yoga was then measured by the participant's answers to a series of questions designed to assess their overall quality-of-life, fatigue caused by cancer, urinary incontinence, and sexual health including erectile dysfunction. The first-of-its-kind study, researchers at UPenn found that measurements of these common cancer treatment side effects were stable and less severe throughout radiation therapy among men who participated in an intensive yoga program. Neha Vapiwala, MD, associate professor in Radiation Oncology at UPenn's Abramson Cancer Center, and lead author of the study, offered her conclusions from the study.

"Data have consistently shown declines in these important measures among prostate cancer patients undergoing cancer therapy without any structured fitness interventions, so the stable scores seen with our yoga program are really good news.”

Nearly 240,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States each year and yoga, it seems, has the potential to not only attract more male practitioners, but help ameliorate the side effects of cancer and radiation therapy. – Details.com

And thank you Details Magazine for sharing a positive story that may help some of us recover medically and mentally from prostate cancer and it's treatment.