Study: Yoga has Potential to Boost Quality of Life for Prostate Cancer Patients

Here at France Surgery, we’re all about promoting health and wellbeing. Eating right, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy mind, by practising yoga or meditating, for example, are all things we encourage our patients and worldwide followers to do.

But now a new study has found that yoga, in particular, could benefit male prostate cancer patients who are undergoing radiation therapy.

More often than not, male prostate cancer patients experience a range of side effects while receiving radiation therapy, including fatigue, urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and a general decline in their overall quality of life.

The new study, however, despite being small, showed found that men who attended a 75-minute yoga class twice a week experienced a stable quality of life throughout. Furthermore, their side effects also remained stable over the same period.

In a press release, Dr. Neha Vapiwala, an associate professor in the radiation oncology department of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "Data have consistently shown declines in these important measures among prostate cancer patients undergoing cancer therapy without any structured fitness interventions, so the stable scores seen with our yoga program are really good news."

The researchers suggest that regular yoga strengthens pelvic floor muscles and increases blood flow, which could have a positive impact on erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.

Moreover, the satisfaction and general happiness that patients get from participating in a group fitness activity further boost their quality of life.

With nearly 240,000 American men each year diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, which funded the study, research such as this has the ability to vastly improve the quality of life of male prostate cancer patients going forward.