Another Study Establishes Role of Yoga in Breast Cancer
For thousands of years, Yogis have known how to control body processes and functions through yoga. Regular yoga practice is said to keep you healthy, retard the process of aging and improve quality of life. Even in modern times, many of the well-known exponents of yoga are known to lead healthy lives well into their nineties and beyond.
Recent years have seen an increased interest in the role yoga can play in health as well disease. With each passing day, more and more studies are putting a stamp of authenticity on what yogis have been claiming for a long time. Though primarily meant for spiritual progress, Yoga has always been therapeutic too, and the recent times have seen an upsurge of interest in this ability of Yoga. Consequently, Yoga Therapy is now an upcoming modality with a lot of substance and potential to it. Yoga is capable of helping with prevention as well as in challenging the unhindered march of the beast of ill-health.
Very recently, research team at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre (TBCC) in Alberta and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology has published a study that establishes yoga has significant potential and should be further explored as a beneficial physical activity option for cancer survivors. The study found that telomeres, which are protein complexes at the end of chromosomes, maintain their length in breast cancer survivors who have psychological intervention, while telomeres shortened in women who were not involved in support groups. Shortened telomeres are associated with diseases, while longer ones are thought to help protect the body. In the study, in the Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery group, the women attended a 90-minute group session about meditation and Hatha yoga for eight weeks. They were also told to meditate and do yoga at home daily. In the Supportive Expressive Therapy group, the women met for 12 weeks for 90 minutes to talk about their concerns and feelings. It allowed them to express their emotions, rather than stifle them. Participants randomly placed in the control group attended one, six-hour stress management seminar, but did not experience any other interventions. It was seen that the women in both of the active groups where they learned meditation or yoga, or did the support groups, they all maintained their telomere lengths, so they were basically the same. But, the women in the control group who had no intervention — their telomeres became shorter..
Telomeres, Cancer and Aging
There has been a small group of scientists, gerontologists, studying the reasons we age and fall sick, for many years – how, and can we, slow down or control the process. More and more researchers are joining the field. Telomeres are protective pieces of DNA material at the ends of every chromosome in every cell in the body. Telomeres, like protective caps at the end of our shoelaces, function to protect our genome integrity and preserve cell function. As we age our telomeres shorten. Scientific studies have shown that short telomeres are associated with age related decline and dysfunction. Evidence clearly shows that people with long telomeres age healthier and live longer.
A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. A telomere is a repeating DNA sequence (for example, TTAGGG) at the end of the body’s chromosomes. The telomere can reach a length of 15,000 base pairs. Telomeres function by preventing chromosomes from losing base pair sequences at their ends. They also stop chromosomes from fusing to each other. However, each time a cell divides, some of the telomere is lost (usually 25-200 base pairs per division). Telomeres protect a cell’s chromosomes from fusing with each other or rearranging—abnormalities which can lead to cancer—and so cells are normally destroyed when their telomeres are consumed. Most cancers are the result of “immortal” cells which have ways of evading this programmed destruction. Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces, because they keep chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other, which would destroy or scramble an organism’s genetic information. When the telomere becomes too short, the chromosome reaches a “critical length” and can no longer replicate. This means that a cell becomes “old” and dies by a process called apoptosis.
Telomere activity is controlled by two mechanisms: erosion and addition. Erosion, as mentioned, occurs each time a cell divides. Addition is determined by the activity of telomerase.
Telomerase, also called telomere terminal transferase, is an enzyme made of protein and RNA subunits that elongates chromosomes by adding TTAGGG sequences to the end of existing chromosomes. Telomerase is found in fetal tissues, adult germ cells, and also tumor cells. Telomerase activity is regulated during development and has a very low, almost undetectable activity in somatic (body) cells. Because these somatic cells do not regularly use telomerase, they age. The result of aging cells is an aging body. If telomerase is activated in a cell, the cell will continue to grow and divide. This “immortal cell” theory is important in two areas of research: aging and cancer.
Cellular aging, or senescence, is the process by which a cell becomes old and dies. It is due to the shortening of chromosomal telomeres to the point that the chromosome reaches a critical length. Cellular aging is analogous to a wind up clock. If the clock stays wound, a cell becomes immortal and constantly produces new cells. If the clock winds down, the cell stops producing new cells and dies. Our cells are constantly aging. Being able to make the body’s cells live forever certainly creates some exciting possibilities.
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
Yoga in Cancer
At SAVY, we have always maintained that Yoga has a big role to play in all diseases, including cancer. Modern Science has only started discovering the wonders that can be achieved with Yoga postures, Pranayama, meditation, and other components of Yoga Lifestyle very recently. Please check the links and our Yoga Wellness program for more information.
The BeCCY Project©
Yoga and Ayurveda offer many ways of helping cancer patients. SAVY offers programs based on Yoga postures, pranayama, meditation, and more, for different illnesses. Validated by the stringent test of time and the millions who tried them, and backed and refined by Dr Sahdev’s more than three decades of superlative clinical experience in main-stream Medicine, inspired by his work in Surgical Oncology, Neurosurgery and other Super Specialties at premier medical institutes in India, his study and work in Yoga and other alternative modalities, and an input of thousands of hours of educated and qualified clinical research and its deep analysis in India, these techniques actually deliver! Right from the day of SAVY’s inception, we’ve put benefits of all these advanced skills and knowledge on offer for the benefit of all under our Yoga Wellness and Yoga Therapy programs.
We offer dedicated Yoga services for breast cancer care under The BeCCY Project© or The Breast Cancer Care Yoga Project©, a milestone project for Yoga Wellness specific to breast cancer care, addresses the specific constitutional imbalances that would be expected in such an illness as per Yoga-Ayurveda philosophy and includes ‘all things Yoga’, mostly corroborated by scientific studies to be useful for the purpose. This is our educated attempt at providing help for this complicated issue which has eluded a tenable answer. It’s an ambitious project – the ambition being to get you a safe, complete, to-the-point and really helpful Yoga program. You are enough to heal yourself – this program will introduce you to the tools to help you accomplish that!
We also offer very well-structured, effective, advanced and result-oriented programs for care in cancer as well as other diseases.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
BeCCY Alpha© – Take The First Step In The Right Direction brings you more useful, complete and actionable Yoga knowledge as one single package. This unique program provides safe, specific and complete practice-along routine with well-researched components chosen with due diligence; also, you’ll get clear advice on Yoga lifestyle. It makes the knowledge about some of the most therapeutic Yoga practices and Yoga Lifestyle available to you, and provides guidance on how to incorporate them easily and correctly into your life to help you correct the imbalances. It provides clear and succinct advice on how to reduce the risk factors. Reduction in risk factors strengthens the immune system and gives one a better chance at a disease-free life.
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We also offer individualized care for Breast Cancer and other programs for Cancer Care.
Note : The BeCCY© Project or any part of it has not been evaluated by Health Canada, US Food & Drug Administration or the American Medical Association. This technology does not claim to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Medical advice must only be obtained from a physician or qualified health practitioner. Results may vary between individuals. There are no guarantees, expressed, or implied.
You should check with your health care professional before starting this or any new therapy or exercise program or breathing routine. This is especially important if you have any pre-existing health conditions, such as high blood pressure, migraine or heart or lung ailments etc. Women who are pregnant or think they might be pregnant should consult their physician before performing any of the breathing or physical exercises or undertaking any therapy program.
The information contained in the program is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of the information in these programs/ workshops is at the reader’s or user’s discretion, risk and responsibility. The studio, author and the publisher specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or application of any information contained herein. A health care professional should be consulted regarding your specific situation.
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