healing yoga for cancer research
how yoga mitigates treatment side-effects
Research led by integrative yoga therapist, Cheryl Fenner Brown, to assess standardized yoga protocols as a complementary approach to improve post-treatment side-effects in cancer patients and correlate change in well-being based on which protocols practiced.
Healing Yoga for Cancer Survivorship Research
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The 2014 research project was sponsored in part by the Cancer Support Community and Piedmont Yoga Community. The Principal Investigator was Cheryl Fenner Brown, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500 and it was conducted at the Cancer Support Community in Walnut Creek, CA. It was made possible by a generous grant from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation President's Grant Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. |
Publications
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International Association of Yoga Therapy's Symposium on Yoga Research (Poster)
September, 2015 at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Stockbridge, MA Find out more about IAYT Society of Integrative Oncology's Annual Conference (Oral Abstract, Slides)
November, 2015 in Boston, MA Find out more at about SIO Cancer Support Community's Affiliate Leadership Conference (Poster)
October, 2015 in San Francisco, CA Find out more about CSC |
Research Participant TestimonialsWhat a gift this class was/is! I've learned some easy, accessible and effective techniques to address physical, mental and emotional limitations and pain. My spirit is lighter. Thank you, Cheryl. Cheryl introduced me to yoga. She is truly a therapist in every sense My participation in Cheryl's Healing Yoga for Cancer Survivorship |
I encourage incorporating Cheryl's yoga sequences into any level of cancer care. Cancer diagnosis effects the patient in ways that nobody can really understand until it happens to you. Yoga is a tool that can help relieve physical pain, while providing better emotional acceptance and spiritual peace with circumstances beyond our control. It is amazing how seemingly simple non vigorous movement can help! Cheryl's yoga practice felt lovingly given to students. Excellent directions for body mechanics enabled me to participate in ways I was afraid of because of my physical limitations, or I was given alternative postures that provided similar exercise but avoided stressing my weak areas. I was able to exercise in ways I know will strengthen my body. I knew the spiritual portion of yoga would benefit me but Cheryl's direction helped me enhance my way of thinking during Mudras that I think will improve my quality of life by accepting (not just the good stuff but not so good stuff as well), being grateful for people I take for granted (focus on their good) and giving. I practiced "releasing to the universe" (my expression) negative feelings. Healing Yoga with Cheryl is a life changing process. As you become more in touch with your body, your body's ability to heal itself becomes more and more clear. |
Healing Yoga for Cancer Survey
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This eight-week session will focus on simple gentle yoga techniques that reduce the severity of cancer treatment side-effects. Participants should be in treatment and will be expected to report on their levels of anxiety, fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, digestive disturbance, and cognitive disturbance and other factors before the session. Weekly yoga instruction will include gentle movement, breathing, mudras, yoga nidra and other relaxation techniques. Sessions will be recorded via webcast and, if unable to attend, all participants are expected to participate and report from home. This project is sponsored by the Piedmont Yoga Community. Sessions were held at the Cancer Support Community, 3276 McNutt Avenue, Walnut Creek, CA in the fall of 2013. Online participation was also available.
The research team consisted of Cheryl Fenner Brown, PYT, E-RYT500; Charis Moore, RYT; Deborah Booth, RYT; Toni Bravo, RYT, RN; and Anita Joubel, RYT. |
Testimonials
The Healing Yoga series at CSC has been one of the highlights of my week. It felt so good to be in such a loving, nurturing environment, and to feel like there was something I could do physically to aide my healing process. I would take this class two nights a week if it were offered! It allowed me space to focus on just feeling my body and relaxing into each pose. None were strenuous yet the stretches were effective. I liked the mudras, they brought a sense of healing and balance. I also noticed a reduced sense of anxiety. [I] always slept better the night of class. I felt the classes, instruction aided me in allowing tension to dissolve and therefore release anxiety. Mudras and mantras can have powerful affects and I'm sure they were pivotal, along with the asanas, in integrating a sense of security and safety, re-connecting to one'sown being. Yoga is a very effective, cool way to improve and maintain a sense of whole body mind awareness! I do greatly appreciate the dedication and teaching skills of Cheryl and her staff. Had attended several yoga programs in India buy none of them came close to Cheryl's teachings. The audio and video recordings were very helpful as reference material and provided an invaluable resource in keeping up the practice. |
I found I was able to deeply relax. This fact alone reduced stress in body and mind, which directly aides in minimizing pain levels. The poses themselves allowed more free-flow of energy and gently opened up and stretched the body with them ind, there was focus provided to concentrate on thoughts of healing. All of this was extremely beneficial. I really enjoyed learning the mudras, the mudras were subtle put powerful. Also having a commitment to show up provided a structure that gave me a feeling of being "on task" something that has been eclipsed during the last couple of years by the disruptive nature of managing my diagnosis. I had a rather profound healing experience when we did the [sic. digestion] class - the one with Surya mudra. It related to a previous experience I'd had many years ago with the same mudra. I also had a rather large BM the following day after a long period of unpleasant constipation. This was very significant for me as it released a lot of toxicity in my body and greatly improved my health. Thanks for the class, I really enjoyed the different breath techniques and hand gestures. I can practice these anytime and anywhere. The videos and handouts were really helpful and the teacher was so thoughtful! |
Healing Yoga for Cancer Survey
During April and May of 2012 an initial 8-week session was at the Cancer Support Community of the East Bay in Walnut Creek on the healing benefits of weekly yoga practice with 11 cancer patients undergoing treatment.
The students tracked various side-effects of treatment including pain interference, sleep disturbance, digestive disturbance, anxiety and fatigue. The research findings are available for viewing.
The students tracked various side-effects of treatment including pain interference, sleep disturbance, digestive disturbance, anxiety and fatigue. The research findings are available for viewing.
Testimonials
What did you enjoy most about the class?
The explanation of what we were going to do before doing it, as well as the demonstration followed by the instruction given. The repetition of the different position helped to reinforce the positions so that I was able to practice at home.
The poses and mudras which helped me a lot in remaining calm among the pain, chaos and rushing of things in my life.
You are a great instructor. I loved the way you tailored the class to the wants and needs of the students. I looked forward to yoga every week.
- B.S.
The relaxation and restorative asanas. Your great teaching skills, especially introducing yoga in simple steps and teaching simple and very effective techniques helped to remove the general fear that Yoga is too complex to practice. Overall it motivated us to include yoga in our daily lives.
- S.N.
How did the practices help you with your levels of anxiety?
Just having my muscles gently stretched out and practicing the mudras ? really reduced my anxiety level. I recently took two trips, five days each, and I had very little anxiety during both trips.
After class I felt relaxed and refreshed. I also found myself using some of the techniques outside of class, It helped me stay calm in some stressful situations.
- B.S.
How did the practices help you with your levels of insomnia?
My sleep is getting better. On the average, I now only wake up once at night and on sometime am able to sleep through the night. My fatigue has improved..
My body was relaxed more than usual, and it made my sleeping much more regular and comfortable.
The yoga nidra practice was very helpful in putting me to deep sleep. It was very relaxing and refreshing.
- S.N.
How did the practices help you with your levels of pain?
The practice at home has helped me stretch and warm up before I get started in the day. This has eased my back pain some.
Helping to gently stretch out the muscles, and using the mudras to calm me, the practices helped me to identify my pain more closely, and treat it more effectively.
It helped me in reducing the intake of pain medications.
- S.N.
How did the practices help you with your levels of fatigue?
Adding more relaxation techniques to my weekly schedule, especially the mudras, helped me to be less often heavily fatigued.
By helping me relax , feel less stressed and sleep better, I wasn't as tired..
- B.S.
Yoga nidra helped me to relax and refresh myself. Was ready to tackle my daily work easily after that.
- S.N.
How did the practices help you with your levels of digestive disturbance?
The focus on the twisting excercises was a great help in keeping my digestive system working more smoothly and regular.
Typically the pain medication I was taking caused constipation. With yoga practice, I was able to reduce my intake of medication to overcome this side effect.
- S.N.
How did your participation help you with your healing process?
I still practice yoga and pop in some of my favorite poses that this class taught us, and I especially use the mudras that help me to remain calm. I have a much lower anxiety level and this helps me so much in not panicing about every little thing. My life feels so much smoother, and I can focus on the real important things when I need to.
It gave me an overall sense of well-being. I also felt like I was taking a positive step to help myself heal. I enjoyed being in the class with others who were going through similar issues.
It was a useful distraction from my anxiety as to my cancer status.
Other comments:
I highly recommend this program, and I would love to see this class brought back on a regular basis." Anon"I believe this program to be extremely helpful for those going through treatment, or suffering through the after effects of treatment. I suffer from neureopothy in my feet, and fibermyalga, and my medications need to be constantly checked and balanced. This program helped me greatly, and so easily, in reducing anxiety, constipation, insomnia, and fatigue, and some reduction in pain relief." Anon"There are many factors out of your control when facing serious health issues, but this yoga class is a positive step towards wellness. I looked forward to yoga every week and left each class feeling both relaxed and energized.
- B.S.
For the first time in my life I learned that yoga was easy to do and thanks to your excellent teaching skills, guidance and supporting handouts gave me confidence to do it on a daily basis. Long time back, more than 30 years ago, had attended yoga classes in India and was intimidated by the complex yoga asanas giving the impression that yoga was not for me and so had never really practiced yoga. I really liked your enthusiasm in teaching yoga in simple terms and emphasizing to practice at our comfort levels and most importantly showing various alternatives to each asana thereby allowing us to chose the method that was more easy and comfortable to do. Additionally giving considerable supplemental handouts and the excellent resources available at your website helped me to easily remember and practice yoga. Your ingenious approach to use available resources at home and yoga techniques for use at office desk were very effective to add yoga in our daily lives
- S.N
The relaxation practices from class are helping with night awakening due to chemo-induced menopause. I love how I feel doing class!
- C.S.
Healing Yoga Research Pilot
The Healing Yoga Program consisted of a six-week yoga class held concurrently at Piedmont Yoga Studio and Alameda Yoga Station, April-May 2011. The students in the class consisted of adults with a variety of issues including cancer, joint replacement, anxiety, surgery recovery, chronic pain, fibromyalgia and chronic stress.
Six different classes were taught that dealt with various topics. During the six-week program themed classes were offered and participants rated their levels of pain, stress, fatigue and emotional state before and after class and there was a clinically significant (>20%) reduction in each symptom during several of the sessions.
Six different classes were taught that dealt with various topics. During the six-week program themed classes were offered and participants rated their levels of pain, stress, fatigue and emotional state before and after class and there was a clinically significant (>20%) reduction in each symptom during several of the sessions.
