Experts say stress reduction is critical in battling cancer
MISSOULA, Mont. - October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Experts say stress reduction is critical in battling cancer.
Last week cancer survivor Laurie Crouser explained how stress played a role in her diagnosis of cancer.
"Stress relief and staying healthy and strong was the only way to battle it," said Crouser.
For Crouser that means jogging and weight-lifting, but there are many other options, including yoga.
"With all the chaos of our world and the bombarding of information and all these things that are happening in our daily lives, having a yoga practice where we are taking time to reconnect with ourselves is a really powerful thing for stress reduction. Even just taking three rounds of breath and bringing your awareness to that breath is going to bring a stress reduction response to the body," said Peak Health and Wellness yoga instructor Selena Garefino.
WebMD says anxiety associated with cancer may increase feelings of pain, interfere with one's ability to sleep, cause nausea and vomiting and, if left untreated, anxiety may even be associated with lower survival rates from cancer.
Garefino says chronic and acute illnesses can be very isolating.
"Being able to come into a studio space and see the same people every single week and share breath and share practice and be together in that way -- it's a really healing environment. There have been plenty of studies showing that when you reduce stress that it helps people to fight cancer and have better outcomes. There are a couple of studies that have come out of Harvard and Duke University on how stress reduction helps with better outcomes when they are being treated," Garefino said.
There are many different kinds of yoga, and some are very aggressive. Garefino urges cancer patients to start with a gentle, restorative yoga practice.

From:  NBCMontana.com

Functional Movement Assessment: Essential to Performance and Injury Prevention


Movement patterns can have a major impact on our bodies. Genetically, the human body was designed to jump, run, swim, bike, throw, and perform at a high level. However, we have found through the demands and of everyday life, stressors occur that produce a negative impact on our body’s mechanics. As a result of these stressors, pain, imbalances, asymmetries, and decreased function occur.


Current research suggests there may be a solution for monitoring and documenting movement patterns in order to correlate these findings directly to overall physical function. In fact, multiple studies have correlated performance on the functional movement assessment with measures of core stability and performance.


Movement assessments are also a valuable tool for identifying individuals who are more likely to become injured. From high school sports to professional leagues, movement assessments are becoming integrated into pre-season sports physicals to identify athletes with pain or movement limitations before advanced performance training begins.


One of the major concepts behind the assessment is keeping the data objective and reproducible. Standardization of this test allows doctors and coaches to create a functional baseline number that can be monitored for change.


A functional movement assessment is scored on a scale from 0 to 21. Knowing your score is important, but more importantly, being aware of the dysfunctional patterns occurring in your own body is absolutely essential to preventing injuries during athletic conditioning.
From:  Health Fitness Revolution