Breast cancer

Study suggests breast gene may be linked to high-risk uterine cancer

Women with a faulty breast cancer gene might face a greater chance of rare but deadly uterine tumors despite having their ovaries removed to lower their main cancer risks, doctors are reporting.

A study of nearly 300 women with bad BRCA1 genes found four cases of aggressive uterine cancers years after they had preventive surgery to remove their ovaries. That rate is 26 times greater than expected.

“One can happen. Two all of a sudden raises eyebrows,” and four is highly suspicious, said Dr. Noah Kauff of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

His study, reported Monday at a cancer conference in Florida, is the first to make this link. Although it’s not enough evidence to change practice now, doctors say women with these gene mutations should be told of the results and consider having their uterus removed along with their ovaries.

“It’s important for women to have that information … but I think it’s too early to strongly recommend to patients that they undergo a hysterectomy” until more research confirms the finding, said Dr. Karen Lu, a specialist in women’s cancers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

She plans to study similar patients at her own hospital, the nation’s largest cancer center, to see if they, too, have higher uterine cancer risks.

About 1 in 400 women in the U.S., and more of eastern European descent, have faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes that greatly raise their risks for breast and ovarian cancer. Doctors advise them to be screened early and often for breast cancer, and to have their ovaries out as soon as they have finished having children to help prevent ovarian and breast cancer, because ovarian hormones affect breast cancer as well.

But the role of BRCA genes in uterine cancer isn’t known, Kauff said.

His study looked at 1,200 women diagnosed with BRCA gene mutations since 1995 at Sloan Kettering. Doctors were able to track 525 of them for many years after they had surgery that removed their ovaries but left the uterus intact.

The vast majority of uterine cancers are low-risk types usually cured with surgery alone. Aggressive forms account for only 10 to 15 percent of cases but more than half of uterine cancer deaths.

Researchers were alarmed to see four of these cases among the 296 women with BRCA1 mutations. None were seen in women with BRCA2 mutations, Kauff said.

The study was discussed Monday at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla.

Last year, the actress Angelina Jolie revealed she had preventive surgery to remove both breasts because of a BRCA1 mutation. Her mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, and her maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer.

Source: Oneida daily dispatch

Exercise advised for lymphoedema after breast cancer

Women who suffer swelling following breast cancer treatment should be encouraged to exercise, say experts.

New National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance says exercise will not make the problem worse and could improve well-being.

One in five people treated for breast cancer will go on to develop lymphoedema in their arm, hand, fingers or chest.

It is a long-term condition that can lead to pain and loss of mobility.

The new NICE guidance, which is subject to consultation, says doctors and nurses should discuss with patients how exercise may improve their quality of life.

They should also stress that the current evidence shows “exercise does not prevent, cause or worsen lymphoedema”.

Clearing ‘confusion’
Many people with breast cancer go on to develop lymphoedema in their arm or chest following surgical or radiotherapy treatment.

It occurs when the body’s lymphatic system becomes damaged and is unable to drain fluid in the normal way.

Prof Mark Baker, director of the NICE centre for clinical practice, said: “For breast cancer patients, lymphoedema may occur as a result of treatment – such as surgery or radiotherapy – or cancer cells blocking the lymph system.

“Some people may be cautious of taking up exercise as they may think it could make their lymphoedema worse or bring it about in the first place.

“Our proposed new recommendations should clear up any confusion relating to the role that exercise can play for people with or at risk of this condition.”

Jackie Harris, clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care, said lymphoedema can severely restrict movement and impact lives.

“Lymphoedema can be controlled but will never go away and we know that regular exercise has many benefits for those living with or at risk of lymphoedema,” she said.

“Regular movement in everyday life or work can help keep joints supple and aids lymph drainage and extra exercises can also be useful if swelling restricts movement of the arm.”

Source; BBC news

7 ‘women’s‘ diseases men should watch out for

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Due to variations in genes, anatomy, and hormone levels, some diseases conflict women some-more mostly than men, and vice-versa. However, meditative of diseases that women are some-more disposed to as “women’s diseases” can leave group exposed to critical health problems.

Here are 7 supposed “women’s diseases” that can also strike men. If we knowledge symptoms, don’t let your gender stop we from removing treatment.

1. Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis reduces a firmness of bone, creation it some-more exposed to fractures. One in 3 women are during risk, though so are one in 5 men. Women knowledge fast bone detriment following menopause, though by 65 to 70 years old, group remove bone mass during about a same rate.

Kidney and thyroid problems, vitamin D deficiency, and lengthened bearing to steroids, cancer therapies, and anti-convulsants put we some-more during risk. You might not have symptoms, so ask your alloy for a bone firmness test.

2. Breast Cancer
Women get breast cancer some-more mostly than group since they have some-more breast tissue. Although usually about one percent of all breast cancers impact men, investigate shows that occurrence is on a rise. Men frequency mind a warning signs, so a cancer is authorised to develop. Therefore, group typically don’t tarry as prolonged as women once a diagnosis is finally made.

If you’re over 50, of African-American descent, or obese, you’re some-more during risk. Watch for any surprising lumps or skin abnormalities in a chest.

3. Thyroid Problems
The thyroid is a tiny gland that rests in a center of a reduce neck, where it produces hormones to control metabolism. If it produces too much, hyperthyroidism results. Symptoms include:

  • fatigue
  • weight gain
  • forgetfulness
  • dry, counterfeit skin and hair

If a thyroid doesn’t furnish adequate hormones, hypothyroidism results. Symptoms include:

  • irritability
  • muscle weakness
  • sleep disturbances

Women are 5 to 8 times some-more expected to have some form of thyroid illness than men, though group can still be affected.

4. Eating Disorders
As some-more group feel a vigour to be skinny and demeanour good, some-more are descending plant to eating disorders. Only 10 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are male, though a effects can be equally devastating. Men also are reduction expected to find treatment, withdrawal them some-more during risk for complications such as:

  • heart problems
  • bone loss
  • organ failure
  • death

Athletes, portly boys, group with gender issues, and those who are concerned or have captious personalities are some-more during risk.

5. Bladder Infections
Bladder infections are most some-more common in women, though group can get them, too— quite group with an lengthened prostate, kidney stones, or an aberrant squeezing of a urethra. Treatment involves antibiotics and is typically really effective, though group need to be wakeful of a symptoms.

They include:

  • frequent urination
  • cloudy urine or bloody urine
  • a clever titillate to urinate
  • a blazing or rawness prodigy during urination
  • low-grade fever

6. Depression
Women are dual times some-more expected than group to be diagnosed with depression, though that might be since their symptoms are different. Women might feel unhappy and cry some-more often, since group are some-more expected to uncover anger, irritation, frustration, and discouragement.

Men might spin to drugs or alcohol, or rivet in unsure behavior. They are also some-more expected to finish self-murder if they try it. Because of these differences, many group go undiagnosed. Without treatment, basin is expected to worsen.

7. Lupus
About 90 percent of those diagnosed with lupus are women, though this autoimmune commotion can also strike men. Symptoms include:

  • joint flourishing and pain
  • muscle weakness
  • extreme fatigue
  • unexplained fever
  • hair loss
  • leg swelling
  • eye puffiness
  • mouth sores
  • swollen glands
  • butterfly-shaped red unreasonable opposite a overpass of a nose and cheeks

The illness is treated likewise in both genders. Your alloy might disremember it since it is singular in men. If we have symptoms, ask for testing.

Always Check with Your Doctor
Studies uncover that group are reduction expected than women to demeanour after their health. They’re 25 percent reduction expected to have visited their alloy in a past year, and roughly 40 percent some-more expected to have skipped endorsed health screenings. They’re also 1.5 times some-more expected to die from heart disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases, and they die an normal of 5 years progressing than women.

If you’re not feeling right, check with your doctor. By removing a treatments we need, we can kick a odds.

Source: Health Medcine Network

 

More Body Fat Raises Ovarian Cancer Risk, Study Suggests

The more a woman weighs, the greater her risk of ovarian cancer, a new report suggests.

It adds to strong suspicions that weight is somehow linked to ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest cancers and one that kills 14,000 U.S. women every year. And it adds ovarian cancer to a list of cancers affected by obesity or body fat, including breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer.

There’s also a link with height, although it’s not as strong as the evidence showing that weight, especially body fat, raises the risk, the American Institute for Cancer Research reports.

A team at the AICR looked at 25 studies with data on 4 million women, 16,000 of whom developed ovarian cancer.

“Greater body fatness is a probable cause of ovarian cancer in women,” the report concludes.

“This is an important finding because it shows a way for women to reduce their chances of getting ovarian cancer,” said Dr. Elisa Bandera of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, who helped write the study. “There is so much we don’t know about preventing ovarian cancer, but now we can tell women that keeping to a healthy weight can help protect against this deadly disease.”

Both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute list obesity as a suspected cause of ovarian cancer.

But the AICR report suggests that a woman doesn’t have to be obese — with a BMI of 30 or greater — for the risk to start growing. Even overweight women have a higher risk, the data suggests, starting at a BMI of about 28, which is considered overweight but not quite obese. (There’s a BMI calculator here).

There are many reasons why fat may raise cancer risk. Fat cells secrete estrogen, a hormone that can help fuel cancer, and people who are overweight or obese have overall higher levels of inflammation, which can affect heart disease and cancer risk alike. Fat cells produce other hormones, such as leptin and growth factors, that may affect the out-of-control cell growth that underlies cancer.

It’s also possible that something else is driving both body growth and cancer — perhaps a genetic cause.

The AICR report looked for evidence of other causes of ovarian cancer but could not find enough evidence to implicate any specific foods such as eggs, milk, coffee, tea, meat, fats or vitamins.

Source: NBC news

Oh Baby: Giving Birth 10 Times May Reduce Mom’s Cancer Risk

Women who give birth to 10 or more children may have a reduced risk of cancer, a new study from Finland suggests. Researchers examined cancer risk in nearly 5,000 Finish women who gave birth at least 10 times before 2010.

Over a three-decade period, there were 656 cases of cancer in these women, about 200 fewer cases than would be expected based on cancer rates in the general Finnish population, the study found.

In fact, the rate of new cancer cases was 24 percent lower among women who delivered 10 or more babies compared to those in the general population, the researchers said.
This overall reduction in cancer risk came mainly from decreased rates of breast cancer and gynecological cancers, including ovarian and endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterus lining). For these cancers, the rate of new cancer cases was about 50 percent lower in women with 10 or more deliveries, compared to the general population.

The researchers aren’t sure whether the findings apply to women who have just one, two or three children, but plan to conduct another study to find out, said study researcher Dr. Juha Tapanainen, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Helsinki University Central Hospital.
Pregnancy and cancer risk

In the study, women who had 10 or more babies were about five years younger when they gave birth to their first child, compared to average Finnish women. It’s known that becoming pregnant at a young age helps protect against breast cancer, Tapanainen said.
Women who give birth before age 20 have about half the risk of breast cancer as those who give birth for the first time after age 30, according to the National Institutes of Health. Some researchers hypothesize that this is because pregnancy speeds up the process of breast cell maturation, and that mature cells are more resistant to cancer, Tapanainen said. So, women who have children at younger ages develop mature, cancer-resistant breast cells sooner.

Previous studies have also found that giving birth to at least five children reduces the risk of breast cancer. This may be because pregnancy halts the menstrual cycle, so the breast cells of women who have many pregnancies are exposed to less estrogen, according to the American Cancer Society. (Exposure to estrogen is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer.)

The halting of ovulation, and the hormone changes that period in life causes, may also play a role in the reduced risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Many women in the new study who had 10 or more children were members of the Laestadian movement, which is part of the Lutheran Church in Finland, the researchers said. Women in this group are similar to average Finnish women in terms of their lifestyle, but their religion prohibits the use of contraceptives.

Studies on the effect of hormonal contraceptives on cancer risk have been inconclusive, but some studies suggest that the contraceptives reduce the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer. Thus, it’s possible that if Laestadian women in the study also took contraceptives, and still had multiple pregnancies, it would even further reduce their risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

Risks of many pregnancies

The study further linked having 10 babies with a reduced risk of basal cell skin cancer, and an increased risk of thyroid cancer. But the researchers don’t know the reason for this link.

Researchers noted that women who are able to have 10 or more children are likely healthier than women in the general population. But this factor alone is unlikely to explain the link between having 10 babies and the reduced risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

In general, the findings suggest that having more children doesn’t result in an increased occurrence of cancer, Tapanainen said. The protective effect is seen after five births, and is even greater with 10 births, Tapanainen said.
Despite the reduced risk of cancer, giving birth to five or more children does come with its own dangers, increasing the risk of pregnancy complications, such as premature birth and hemorrhaging after delivery.

Source: Yahoo news

Yoga can help improve well being of women with breast cancer

Yoga may improve the lives of breast cancer patients, a study has found.
Researchers say practising it can control stress and improve the wellbeing of women having radiation treatment.

Simple stretching exercises were able to lessen fatigue, the study showed.
But – when stretching was combined with the breathing, meditation and relaxation techniques used in yoga – breast cancer patients also felt healthier and more relaxed.
Lorenzo Cohen, a professor who led the research at the University of Texas, said that combining mind and body practices had ‘tremendous potential’.

The study, which was reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, split 191 women with breast cancer into three groups: yoga, simple stretching and neither.
Women who practised yoga had the steepest fall in their cortisol levels, suggesting yoga helped regulate the stress hormone.
Dr Cohen said: ‘Combining mind and body practices that are part of yoga clearly have tremendous potential to help patients manage the psycho-social and physical difficulties associated with treatment and life after cancer, beyond the benefits of simple stretching.’

To conduct the study, 191 women with breast cancer were split into three groups – yoga; simple stretching; or no instruction in yoga or stretching.
Participants in the yoga and stretching groups attended sessions specifically tailored to breast cancer patients for one-hour, three days a week throughout their six weeks of radiation treatment.

They were asked to report on their quality of life, including levels of fatigue and depression, their daily functioning and a measure assessing ability to find meaning in the illness experience.  Saliva samples were collected and electrocardiogram tests were also administered throughout and after the course of treatment.

Dr Cohen said the research shows that developing a yoga practice also helps patients after completing cancer treatment.
He added: ‘The transition from active therapy back to everyday life can be very stressful as patients no longer receive the same level of medical care and attention.
‘Teaching patients a mind-body technique like yoga as a coping skill can make the transition less difficult.’
Dr Cohen and his team are now conducting a clinical trial in women with breast cancer to further determine the mechanisms of yoga that lead to improvement in physical functioning, quality of life and biological outcomes during and after radiation treatment.

Source: daily mail

When Breast Cancer Spreads

If your cancer spreads beyond your breast and the nearby lymph nodes, it’s called advanced cancer, or metastatic cancer. The most common places it spreads to are the liver, lungs, bones, and brain.

News that your cancer has spread is scary, but there are many treatments that work for metastatic breast cancer.

“The majority of women with metastatic breast cancer can move forward with their therapies while continuing their regular lifestyle — working, taking care of their families, exercising, and traveling,” says Erica L. Mayer, MD, MPH, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“We often think of metastatic breast cancer as a chronic disease, like diabetes,” says Mayer. A Different Treatment Schedule

Treatments for advanced breast cancer may go on without an end date, to keep the cancer under control. You’ll visit the clinic on a regular basis and you’ll get to know the health care team.

“If the treatment works, you’ll stay on it as long as it’s working well without side effects,” says Rita Nanda, MD, of the University of Chicago’s breast cancer program. If not, your doctor will try different treatments.

Your doctor is likely to suggest chemotherapy because it travels through your entire body. “Metastatic breast cancer is a whole-body disease,” Mayer says.

You may also need hormone therapy. Targeted drugs are another option. They work directly on the changes within cancer cells. These combinations can make chemotherapy work better.

Sometimes surgery or radiation can help ease symptoms. Regular Tests Keep Tabs on Your Cancer

Occasionally, you’ll have imaging tests to see how treatments are working and whether the cancer has spread. Common imaging tests include:

CT scans, where an X-ray machine circles around as you lie on a table Bone scans with an injection that helps show areas with cancer (scintigraphy) PET scans with a special camera and a tracer chemical that goes in your arm by IV
“CT scans examine the chest and abdomen,” says Richard J. Bleicher, MD, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “You can see something on organs like the liver or sometimes the bones.” Sometimes results are combined for a PET CT scan. A computer merges the images to find hot spots that may be cancer.

Your doctor will tell you how often you need these tests, based on the stage of your cancer.

Source: Web md

 

When Men Get Breast Cancer?

That is the message of a provocative new photography series featuring the faces, and scars, of men with breast cancer.

The vast majority of the photos in that project are of young women, shown topless with scars where their breasts used to be. The pictures, which are both shocking and beautiful, are featured in a traveling exhibition that will be on display next month in Toronto.

But most visitors to the Scar Project find the photos on the Internet, where they have been viewed by millions of people. One of those people is Oliver Bogler, a cancer biologist in Houston who found out that he had breast cancer 18 months ago after noticing a lump in his chest.

As in a woman’s breast, the duct cells in a man’s breast can undergo cancerous changes fueled by hormones that influence the growth of cells. It is not clear why some men get breast cancer while most do not, but risk factors include a family history of breast cancer, inherited gene mutations, radiation exposure, extended occupational exposure to certain chemicals or intense heat, obesity, liver disease, alcoholism, and other cancer treatments.

All of these factors can influence the level of hormones in a man’s body and potentially spur breast cancer. That said, many men who develop breast cancer do not have any of these risk factors.

Fewer than 1 percent of breast cancers are diagnosed in men, but that is little comfort to the 2,400 men a year who learn they have the disease. For Dr. Bogler, 47, the diagnosis was particularly shocking because his wife had learned five years earlier that she had breast cancer.

“I struggled with the huge coincidence,” Dr. Bogler said. “We were both diagnosed when we were 46. It seemed a bit unlikely. I couldn’t imagine having this conversation with her, either: ‘Honey, I think I have what you have.’ ”

Like many cancer patients, Dr. Bogler found himself spending time online in hopes of learning more about his disease. He stumbled across the Scar Project and asked Mr. Jay if he would consider including men in the series. As a result, the Male Scar Project was created.

The photo of Dr. Bogler shows him next to a radiation machine, his chest covered with marker lines used to guide the radiation beam.

The photos of men with breast cancer are admittedly less jarring than those of women. One reason may be that it is less surprising to see a shirtless man, and the absence of his breast and nipple is not as immediately noticeable. But the portraits of the men are still haunting and show, in a more subtle way, the spiritual ravages of cancer.

The photos are also similar in that they capture both the vulnerability and the strength of breast cancer patients, regardless of their sex.

One of the subjects, William Becker, of Bridgeport, Conn., said he had wanted to be photographed to raise awareness among men who may be ignoring a lump, not realizing it could be breast cancer.

breast_cancer_male

 

 

“I was dealing with a lot of health issues that could have been avoided had I done something sooner about the lump that I had found on my chest,” Mr. Becker said. “No man should be going through what I was enduring.”

Mr. Becker said he felt the photo captured his experience better than words could.

“The photo is very striking,” he said. “It gives you a sense of fear, in that there is this man with a scar on his chest and burn marks surrounding it from the radiation treatment — a kind of ‘don’t let this happen to you’ image.”

Dr. Bogler worked with Mr. Jay to include men in the Scar Project because he felt that more awareness was needed about the male experience with the disease. He also believes that more research into male breast cancer could help unlock new knowledge about the disease for both men and women.

Dr. Bogler added that while ovarian, uterine, prostate and testicular cancers are inherently gender-specific, breast cancer is no more gender-specific than lung or colon cancer.

“I was surprised to learn how little awareness there was for men,” he said. “Breast cancer is skewed toward women, but it’s not just a woman’s cancer.”

Even when filling out forms at the doctor’s office, Dr. Bogler found that many of the questions were aimed at women.

“I live in this very pink world,” he said. “I’m not complaining about it. I don’t mind skipping the ‘Are you pregnant?’ part of the form. But I realized most people don’t even know men get breast cancer.”

Source: New York Times

 

Breast cancer fears and facts conflict over mammography

Women may perceive health threats such as breast cancer based on fear rather than facts, but their feelings can’t be left out of discussions with doctors, a U.S. cardiologist argues in a medical journal.

In Wednesday’s online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center describes her frustration over trying to help women understand that heart disease is the top killer of women, not breast cancer.

Rosenbaum points to the controversy surrounding mammography screening. A 25-year Canadian study is the latest to suggest that annual screening mammograms for women in their 40s and 50s don’t save lives, but instead can cause over-diagnosis of cancers that won’t be fatal.

The value of diagnostic mammograms to help determine if a lump is in fact cancer isn’t in question, but the larger issue is about the overall benefits of screening.

Cancer agencies in British Columbia and Ontario said their breast cancer screening programs won’t be changed in response to the report.

“We feel our guidelines are progressive and have kept the evidence in mind,” said Dr. Christine Wilson, a radiologist and medical director of the screening mammography program at the BC Cancer Agency.

Coincidentally, when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended in 2009 that the frequency of mammograms should decrease for most American women younger than 50, Rosenbaum said the outrage in the U.S. was so intense that many physicians, political leaders and advocacy groups argued the data didn’t justify the change.

‘Doesn’t save lives’

“But data have shown for years that early mammography screening doesn’t save lives, just as data show that preventing heart disease, through certain lifestyle modifications and appropriate use of medications, does. So why do we resist these data?

“Have pink ribbons and Races for the Cure so permeated our culture that the resulting female solidarity lends mammography a sacred status?” Rosenbaum asks.

“Certainly, our understanding of one’s risk for any disease must be anchored in the facts. But if we want our facts to translate into better health, we may need to start talking more about our feelings.”

Neil Weinstein is professor emeritus at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he studies how people’s perception of risk influences their behaviour.

“I think it’s very understandable that people want to believe there are things they can do that will protect them from harm, and we tend naturally to overestimate the amount of benefit they give because it makes us feel less frightened,” Weinstein said.

Humans also tend to give more weight to compelling stories from survivors who say they’re alive because they had a mammogram than they do to any studies or statistics, he added.

A sense of belonging to a group is a powerful motivator, but a herd mentality also shapes the information we seek about our health and our willingness to accept it, Rosenbaum said.

Source: cbc news

Yoga May Reduce Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors

breast cancer

Yoga may help breast cancer survivors beat the debilitating fatigue and sleep problems that often follow toxic treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, a new study shows.

Fatigue can be a big challenge for cancer survivors.

“Even some years out from breast cancer treatment, anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of women report substantial levels of fatigue,” said study author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University in Columbus.

That may be due, in large part, to disrupted sleep. As many as 60 percent of cancer survivors say they have trouble sleeping, she noted, a rate that’s two to three times higher than their cancer-free peers.

The end result is that many cancer survivors end up trying to drag themselves through their days.

“And it’s a nasty downward spiral where increasing fatigue means less activity and less activity means increasing fatigue, so that over time less and less translates into greater frailty and decline,” Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Kiecolt-Glaser, who studies the health effects of stress, wanted to see if it was possible to stop that cycle.

She and her colleagues, including her husband and research collaborator, Ronald Glaser, recruited 200 women aged 27 to 76 who were new to yoga and had finished treatment for breast cancer within the last three years. They had to be at least two months past their last treatment and otherwise healthy to participate.

The women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group practiced the gentle, flowing poses of Hatha yoga for two 90-minute sessions each week for three months. The second group was placed on a waiting list.

Before and after the study, all the women answered detailed questions about their energy and vitality, mental health, the kind of support they felt they were getting from friends and family, their sleep, how active they were and even their diet. Researchers also performed blood tests to measure markers of inflammation.

The differences weren’t immediately apparent. After three months of practice, women in the yoga group reported that they had more vitality and were sleeping better, compared to the group that was waiting to take the class.

And after their group sessions ended, most who were taking yoga gradually stopped practicing. Their physical activity went back to the level it was when they signed up for the study. Despite that, they continued to improve.

At the six-month mark, the women practicing yoga reported about 60 percent less fatigue than the women on the waiting list, and their measures of inflammation were 13 percent to 20 percent lower.

The longer they practiced yoga, the greater their improvements, Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Source: webmd