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People with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the lining of
the large intestine that can lead to symptoms like diarrhea and
abdominal pain. When symptoms are severe, patients may have sudden
loose or bloody stools so often that it impairs their ability to
navigate normal daily activities like going to school or work.
Researchers studied 77 ulcerative colitis patients who reported a
reduced quality of life due to the disease even though their
symptoms were clinically in remission. They randomly assigned
participants to receive either 12 weekly yoga sessions or written
self-care advice and found the yoga group had greater improvements
in quality of life.
“It seems to be safe and effective, so it is surely worth trying
yoga as an add-on to other evidence-based interventions at least for
maintenance of remission,” said lead study author Dr. Holger Cramer,
a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.
“It definitely should not be used as a replacement but rather as an
ancillary intervention,” Cramer said by email. “That’s how it was
used in our study.”
Previous research has linked higher perceived stress levels to more
severe ulcerative colitis symptoms, and other studies have also tied
yoga to reduced stress in both healthy and sick people, researchers
note in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
While there isn’t a standard treatment regimen that’s the same for
all patients with ulcerative colitis, they may take a variety of
different drugs to curb inflammation and achieve symptom remission.
In more severe cases, they may need surgery to remove the colon and
rectum.
At the start of the current study, patients had been in remission
for at least four weeks and no longer than one year.
People were excluded if they weren’t in remission and had active
symptoms, if they had surgery to remove their colon, or if they had
medical problems that would make it hard for them to do even light
yoga exercises.
Patients assigned to yoga during the study took 90-minute classes in
what’s known as hatha yoga, with postures and breathing exercises
designed to calm the body and mind. People in the yoga group were
also given manuals to try poses at home and encouraged to keep a
daily log of their practice time.
Everyone in the control group of self-care patients received two
books with general information on ulcerative colitis and strategies
for improving symptoms with lifestyle modifications, medication and
other approaches. They were asked not to start a yoga practice or
any other exercise regimen during the study.
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With yoga, people reported a better quality of life after 12 weeks
of classes, and again three months later.
Five patients in the yoga group had side effects like
musculoskeletal pain that may have been related to the yoga, while
none of the mild side effects in the self-care group appeared
related to this intervention.
One limitation of the study is that many patients dropped out of the
yoga class, mainly because it proved too time consuming, the authors
note. It’s also possible that personal attention from yoga
instructors contributed to outcomes for that group rather than the
yoga itself, the researchers point out.
Still, some previous studies suggest that stress reduction may have
direct anti-inflammatory effects, which may explain why yoga reduced
disease activity and flares in patients with ulcerative colitis in
the current study, said Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, a gastroenterologist, at
the University of Calgary in Canada.
“Yoga should not replace the medications that help patients with
ulcerative colitis go into remission,” Kaplan, who wasn’t involved
in the study, said by email. “But yoga may serve as complementary
intervention, particularly in patients experiencing stress or whose
quality of life is poor.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2q7krgL Alimentary Pharmacology and
Therapeutics, online April 5, 2017.
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