Yoga might be the go-to activity for many people looking to reduce stress and stay fit, but it’s also the center of a new study hoping to help those with Parkinson’s disease.
Corjena Cheung, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor in the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing, has studied the effects of yoga on osteoarthritis for the past five years. Now, she is embarking on a new study to help those with Parkinson’s disease.
“A lot of people are doing yoga now, but there’s not a lot of research on its therapeutic effects,” Cheung said.
Cheung looked at how yoga affected those with osteoarthritis compared to those who participated in aerobic exercises. She found that in as little as four weeks, yoga helped people with osteoarthritis better cope with symptoms and anxiety, as well as relax more, than aerobic strength exercises did. It also decreased the fear of falling among participants.
“Yoga was a great tool to help them cope with physical problems in addition to helping them strengthen their minds,” Cheung said.
In this new study, Cheung hopes to discover whether yoga could also be an effective complementary option to medications that almost always accompany a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. She hopes to reduce stress, which could be contributing to some of the Parkinson’s symptoms and making them worse.
“Yoga may help manage pain, stress and the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, which are not completely treated with medications,” Cheung said.
One challenge to studying the reduction of pain is that measuring pain is not an exact science — studies can only measure how high someone perceives their pain level to be. Cheung is hoping that yoga will help decrease participants’ perceived reception of pain.
While yoga is a centuries-old practice that originated in India, the relatively recent introduction of yoga in the United States might be good for participants as well. For yoga to help participants mentally, they need to enjoy what they are doing. According to Cheung, learning a new skill is more enjoyable than doing an activity that has been done for years.
In this feasibility study, Cheung is looking for 20 participants with Parkinson’s disease between the ages of 45 and 75.
If you or someone you know may be interested in participating in this study, more information is available here.
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