Based on these results, it seems like yoga would be a good add-on to medical care for anyone with fibromyalgia. The study was conducted at Oregon Health & Sciences University and included 53 women with fibromyalgia. Half were assigned to learn and practice yoga, while the others, called the control group, carried on with their usually medical treatments. Here's an excerpt from the researcher's findings:
Comparison of the data for the two groups revealed that yoga appears to assist in combating a number of serious fibromyalgia symptoms, including pain, fatigue, stiffness, poor sleep, depression, poor memory, anxiety and poor balance. All of these improvements were shown to be not only statistically but also clinically significant, meaning the changes were large enough to have a practical impact on daily functioning. For example, pain was reduced in the yoga group by an average of 24 percent, fatigue by 30 percent and depression by 42 percent.
The study was just published in the medical journal Pain. Read more about this.
I like this because yoga is a low-cost activity that has fitness benefits in addition to those seen in these women. Why not try?
