Findings for yoga delivered in-person or online to patients and their caregivers<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Participating in yoga may cut negative treatment-related complications in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation, according to a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Quality Care Symposium, held from Oct. 27 to 28 in Boston.<\/p>\n
Kathrin Milbury, Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues randomly assigned patients to yoga with their caregiver (34 patients), patient-only yoga (33 patients), or usual care (33 patients). The yoga intervention included 15 sessions, either in-person or via videoconference, with sessions happening in parallel with the patient s radiotherapy schedule. Data on treatment-related complications were extracted from medical records.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that yoga session attendance was high in both groups, with 88 percent of participants attending at least 10 sessions (13.1 sessions in the patient-caregiver group and 13.3 sessions in the patient-only group). For patient-reported physical function and nutrition intake, yoga was associated with a significant effect favoring the patient-caregiver group. Compared to the usual-care group, patients in both yoga groups had significantly fewer feeding tubes placed. There was a marginally significant effect for yoga reducing emergency department visits, but no significant effect for hospital admission.<\/p>\n
“I believe the lack of significant group difference between the patient-only yoga and patient-caregiver yoga groups is related to the high session attendance in both yoga groups,” Milbury said in a statement. “One of benefits of yoga is the immediate stress relief, and as such our participants experience the benefit early on in the program.”<\/p>\n
Financial ties to Agenus and PharmaCann were disclosed; one researcher is the author of The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care<\/em>. <\/p>\n Press Release<\/a><\/p>\n