Approximately 24 million people in America could have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and this includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or both. Individuals having COPD have difficulty expelling used air from their lungs, which makes it hard to inhale healthy fresh air. While COPD cannot be cured, a patient’s well being could be improved by managing symptoms like shortness of breath. COPD, in most cases brought on by smoking cigarettes, impacts both women and men, and often, symptoms are seen in individuals in their 40s.
COPD is a systemic inflammatory disease which results in difficulty breathing. The researchers investigated to determine if basic, structured yoga training has an effect on the degree of inflammation, difficulty breathing, as well as quality of life in individuals with COPD.
The research involved 29 individuals with COPD who received yoga training in a format which involved using physical postures (asanas), cleansing techniques, (kriyas), breathing techniques (pranayama), meditation, as well as a relaxation technique (shavasan) twice a week for an hour, for 4 weeks. After the 4-week period, individuals were trained for 1 hour every 2 weeks, with the remaining sessions concluded at home. Individuals were examined on evaluation of breathing, lung function, quality of life, and also level of inflammation. Another assessment was carried out at the conclusion of the 12-week yoga training session. Each parameter showed significant improvement by the end of the 12-week yoga training.
The study found that yoga training can be a simple, cost-effective strategy which can help improve quality of life in individuals with COPD.[1]
Image Source – huffingtonpost