Here's the video of my recent Authors@Google talk on Yoga for Pain Relief. I describe 3 key ideas that have changed the way medicine thinks about about pain, summarize some exciting studies on how yoga and meditation can help people with pain, take some fun and interesting questions from the audience, and then lead a 10 min breathing/gentle stretching/meditation practice (in chairs).
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Showing posts with label breathing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breathing. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
New Guided Meditation Practice
I just added a guided meditation practice to the Yoga for Pain Relief resources page.
This 15-minute audio meditation is a concentration and mindfulness practice to help stabilize and focus your mind. I created it as a basic introductory meditation for a course I'm teaching at Stanford this quarter, The Science of a Calmed Mind. It's a great track for people who need a little extra encouragement to practice.
After I review the instructions, you will hear silence. Every five minutes, you will hear the sound of a meditation bowl being struck. You can finish your practice at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes.
In the first 5-minute segment, I check in twice to remind you to notice where your mind is, in case it has wandered. At the first 5-minute mark, I invite you to drop the counting practice and focus on the sensations of breathing. At the 10-minute mark, I remind you to stay resting with the sensations of the breath and body.
When you finish, acknowledge the success of sitting, no matter how focused or distracted you were. Your focus will be different on different days, even as you cultivate more and more skill at concentration. The success of this practice is your sitting down and staying put, and honoring the intention of the practice.
For more guided practices, check out the Yoga for Pain Relief resources page.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
STUDY SUMMARY: Yoga Decreases Breathing Distress and Improves Functional Performance in People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Source: The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 15(3): 225-234. March 2009.
Authors: Donesky-Cuenco D, Nguyen HQ, Paul S, & Carrieri-Kohlman V.
Contact: DorAnne Donesky-Cuenco, Department of Physiological Nursing, School of Nursing, Box 0610, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0610, or Virginia Carrieri-Kohlman at ginger.carrieri-kohlman@nursing.ucsf.edu.
This pilot study examined the safety, feasibility, and benefits of a yoga practice in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 21 women and 8 men (mean age of 69.9 ± 9.5 years) were randomly assigned to either a standard care control group or a yoga therapy intervention. The yoga group participated in a 12-week, twice-weekly yoga program designed specifically for individuals with COPD. The practice included 9 basic asanas and visama vritti pranayama (timed breathing).
To examine the safety of the yoga practice, researchers measured heart rate, oxygen saturation, dyspnea, and pain during the practice. To examine feasibility, researchers recorded participant adherence and asked participants how much they enjoyed the practice and how difficult they found it. To test the benefits of yoga, researchers measured breathing pain and distress before and after the 12-week program, as well as other measures of health, including exercise performance and health-related quality of life.
The yoga practice was both safe and feasible for the participants, providing more evidence that a well-planned yoga intervention is appropriate for individuals with COPD. Compared to the standard-care control group, participants in the yoga group showed a significant reduction in breathing distress. The yoga group also showed improved physical strength and walking speed in a timed exercise test, as well as higher self-reported of life.
This study is limited by its size, and should be interpreted as providing encouraging but modest evidence for the idea that yoga benefits individuals with COPD. However, the number of these small-scale studies is increasing, and being reported by diverse research groups, as illustrated by the two studies reported here.
This research summary was orginally prepared for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. IAYT is a professional organization for yoga therapists, yoga teachers, researchers, and healthcare professionals who use yoga in their practice.
Authors: Donesky-Cuenco D, Nguyen HQ, Paul S, & Carrieri-Kohlman V.
Contact: DorAnne Donesky-Cuenco, Department of Physiological Nursing, School of Nursing, Box 0610, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0610, or Virginia Carrieri-Kohlman at ginger.carrieri-kohlman@nursing.ucsf.edu.
This pilot study examined the safety, feasibility, and benefits of a yoga practice in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 21 women and 8 men (mean age of 69.9 ± 9.5 years) were randomly assigned to either a standard care control group or a yoga therapy intervention. The yoga group participated in a 12-week, twice-weekly yoga program designed specifically for individuals with COPD. The practice included 9 basic asanas and visama vritti pranayama (timed breathing).
To examine the safety of the yoga practice, researchers measured heart rate, oxygen saturation, dyspnea, and pain during the practice. To examine feasibility, researchers recorded participant adherence and asked participants how much they enjoyed the practice and how difficult they found it. To test the benefits of yoga, researchers measured breathing pain and distress before and after the 12-week program, as well as other measures of health, including exercise performance and health-related quality of life.
The yoga practice was both safe and feasible for the participants, providing more evidence that a well-planned yoga intervention is appropriate for individuals with COPD. Compared to the standard-care control group, participants in the yoga group showed a significant reduction in breathing distress. The yoga group also showed improved physical strength and walking speed in a timed exercise test, as well as higher self-reported of life.
This study is limited by its size, and should be interpreted as providing encouraging but modest evidence for the idea that yoga benefits individuals with COPD. However, the number of these small-scale studies is increasing, and being reported by diverse research groups, as illustrated by the two studies reported here.
This research summary was orginally prepared for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. IAYT is a professional organization for yoga therapists, yoga teachers, researchers, and healthcare professionals who use yoga in their practice.
STUDY SUMMARY: Efficacy and Tolerability of Yoga Breathing in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Source: Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, 29(2): 133-137. March/April 2009.
Authors: Pomidori L, Campigotto F, Amatya TM, Bernardi L, & Cogo A.
Contact: Annalisa Cogo, Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati Allo Sport, Via Gramicia 35, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. annalisa.cogo@unife.it
This study investigated whether a traditional and simple yoga breathing technique could benefit individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). People with COPD tend to breathe shallowly and rapidly. The researchers hypothesized that yogic breathing could help people with COPD learn to breathe more deeply and slowly.
8 men and 3 women (ages ranged from 59 to 80) with COPD were taught a yoga breathing technique in a single session. None of the participants had any previous yoga experience. A certified yoga teacher taught participants “the complete yoga breathing technique” as described in The Complete Yoga Book: Yoga of Breathing, Yoga of Posture, and Yoga of Meditation (Schoken Book 1978). This technique involves breathing in a way that expands the belly and lower ribs, then the lower chest, and then the upper chest on the inhalation and reverses this pattern on the exhalation. The breath becomes both deeper and slower than habitual breathing.
The researchers monitored the participants’ spontaneous breathing for 30 minutes prior to the yoga session, as well as the participants’ breathing throughout a single 30-minute yoga session. They measured many variables related to healthy breathing, including oxygen saturation, the depth of each breath, breathing rate, the relative length of inhalation compared to exhalation, and the coordination between rib cage and abdomen movement.
Participants took between 5 and 12 minutes to successfully learn the technique, but all were able to perform it comfortably. Compared to baseline breathing, participants showed a decrease in breathing rate, greater depth, and significant lengthening of both inhalation and exhalation. There was no significant change in coordination of the rib cage and abdomen. This was considered a positive finding, as other breathing techniques have increased desynchronization in people with COPD. Participants also showed a small but significant increase in oxygen saturation, with the greatest change among participants who had the lowest saturation at baseline.
This modest study is important for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that this yoga breathing technique can be safely and comfortably performed by individuals with serious respiratory concerns. Participants learned the practice relatively quickly and without respiratory distress. Second, it demonstrates that the technique reliably produces its purported effects (slowing and deepening the breath) in a single session, even among individuals with strong habits to breathe shallowly and rapidly. This study should encourage yoga teachers and healthcare practitioners to share a simple, nonstrenuous breathing technique with a population that they may feel cautious with.
This research summary was prepared for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. IAYT is a professional organization for yoga therapists, yoga teachers, researchers, and healthcare professionals who use yoga in their practice.
Authors: Pomidori L, Campigotto F, Amatya TM, Bernardi L, & Cogo A.
Contact: Annalisa Cogo, Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati Allo Sport, Via Gramicia 35, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. annalisa.cogo@unife.it
This study investigated whether a traditional and simple yoga breathing technique could benefit individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). People with COPD tend to breathe shallowly and rapidly. The researchers hypothesized that yogic breathing could help people with COPD learn to breathe more deeply and slowly.
8 men and 3 women (ages ranged from 59 to 80) with COPD were taught a yoga breathing technique in a single session. None of the participants had any previous yoga experience. A certified yoga teacher taught participants “the complete yoga breathing technique” as described in The Complete Yoga Book: Yoga of Breathing, Yoga of Posture, and Yoga of Meditation (Schoken Book 1978). This technique involves breathing in a way that expands the belly and lower ribs, then the lower chest, and then the upper chest on the inhalation and reverses this pattern on the exhalation. The breath becomes both deeper and slower than habitual breathing.
The researchers monitored the participants’ spontaneous breathing for 30 minutes prior to the yoga session, as well as the participants’ breathing throughout a single 30-minute yoga session. They measured many variables related to healthy breathing, including oxygen saturation, the depth of each breath, breathing rate, the relative length of inhalation compared to exhalation, and the coordination between rib cage and abdomen movement.
Participants took between 5 and 12 minutes to successfully learn the technique, but all were able to perform it comfortably. Compared to baseline breathing, participants showed a decrease in breathing rate, greater depth, and significant lengthening of both inhalation and exhalation. There was no significant change in coordination of the rib cage and abdomen. This was considered a positive finding, as other breathing techniques have increased desynchronization in people with COPD. Participants also showed a small but significant increase in oxygen saturation, with the greatest change among participants who had the lowest saturation at baseline.
This modest study is important for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that this yoga breathing technique can be safely and comfortably performed by individuals with serious respiratory concerns. Participants learned the practice relatively quickly and without respiratory distress. Second, it demonstrates that the technique reliably produces its purported effects (slowing and deepening the breath) in a single session, even among individuals with strong habits to breathe shallowly and rapidly. This study should encourage yoga teachers and healthcare practitioners to share a simple, nonstrenuous breathing technique with a population that they may feel cautious with.
This research summary was prepared for the International Association of Yoga Therapists. IAYT is a professional organization for yoga therapists, yoga teachers, researchers, and healthcare professionals who use yoga in their practice.
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