Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs:Yoga For Your Pain

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Reported March 8, 2002

Yoga For Your Pain

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) --

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From 25 percent to 30 percent of all Americans suffer from chronic

pain. Most turn to medication for relief. A new study shows there is a

more natural way to find relief. In fact, your body may already have

what it takes to be pain-free.

Should Small ever need proof he is making a difference, he could

find it in the back row of his 7 a.m. yoga class. One of his students,

Scheuer, says, " But, I'll tell you, you can see it in the

hands. They'd swell up like little hams. I do the yoga. And see my

hands? I couldn't do that before. "

<http://63.111.57.23/images/ivanhoe/storyimages/2002_03/2988_2.jpg> This

71-year old says her arthritis pain disappeared when she met Small and

started practicing iyenger yoga, a type of yoga that combines breathing

exercises with difficult poses.

Child & adolescent psychiatrist Gaur, M.D., is not surprised. She

practices the same type of yoga, and recently put it to the test.

Eighteen chronic pain patients took a 90-minute yoga class three times a

week. Four weeks later, " They managed to decrease their medication and

actually, you know, improve their quality of life, " says Guar, of the

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. The chronic patients also

reported a decrease in anxiety and medication.

<http://63.111.57.23/images/ivanhoe/storyimages/2002_03/2988_3.jpg> It

has not cured Gerrie Wormser's fibromyalgia, but it is making her pain

easier to live with. She says, " The thumb pains are still there, the

knees, the back. It's still there, but I can manage it. "

Popping a pill may be easier, but fewer side effects and results that

are more permanent make this tough medicine worth swallowing for some.

Dr. Gaur says iyengar yoga can also improve your mood and increase your

resistance to disease. She says a larger study is needed to determine

whether it can actually cure chronic pain.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Gaur, M.D.

Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

ypain2000@... <mailto:ypain2000@...>

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