Author: C. Vidyashankar, MD
Publication: Reuters
Date: February 6, 2008
URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL66255420080206
A one-week yoga program reduced stress and
anxiety among survivors of the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean islands of
Andaman and Nicobar in December 2004, researchers from India report.
Dr. Shirley Telles and her team from the Swami
Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation in Bangalore conducted a stress management
program for the survivors a month after the tsunami occurred. Forty-seven
adults, of different cultural backgrounds, were enrolled in an 8-day intensive
"Vivekananda yoga" program consisting of loosening exercises, physical
postures, regulated breathing and guided relaxation for 1 hour every day.
Self assessment of symptoms and measurements
of heart rate and respiratory rate were carried out before and after the program.
Fear, anxiety, sadness, sleep disturbances
and respiratory rates were significantly reduced after the yoga program, Telles
and colleagues report in the journal eCAM (Evidence-based Complementary and
Alternative Medicine).
Yoga modifies the body response to stress
of various types, including natural calamities, Telles explained in comments
to Reuters Health.
"In the intensive phase, a minimum of
7-10 days is ideal. However, there should be an attempt to carry on the program
at least for 3 months, and ideally for 2 years," she recommended.
"Yoga practice may be useful in the management
of stress following a natural disaster in people with widely differing social,
cultural and spiritual beliefs," the researchers conclude.
