In episode 10 of Connecting the Dots, Need help making lifestyle changes? Find a health coach, Rosy McCann discusses small actions that we can take every single day to be well. Rosy is a holistic health and nutrition practitioner who offers clients many services, two of which being private yoga classes and workshops. My discussion with Rosy inspired me to share part of a research paper that I wrote about how yoga might be able help prevent cancer. I also discuss why cancer prevention is personal to me and my experience incorporating more yoga in my life. Check it out below!
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Taylor and Stanton (2021) explain that stress can increase the risk of physical disease, like cancer, because it can cause negative psychosocial and health behavior changes (pp. 124-126). The negative health behavior changes can include unhealthy diet, lack of sleep and exercise, substance abuse, and negative coping styles. Cancer prevention is important to me personally because three of my grandparents and one of my aunts were diagnosed with cancer. Additionally, I engage in many healthy habits, but I have struggled with managing my stress. It is important for me to learn successful strategies to manage my stress to prevent the development of chronic illness. Many other people do not know how to cope with or manage their stress, especially during a global pandemic. The American Psychological Association (2020) reported that 78% of adults say that the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life. Almost 50% of adults stated that their physical and emotional states were negatively impacted by the increased stress of the pandemic (American Psychological Association, 2020). Because of the relationship between stress and disease, it is critical for people to learn healthy stress management techniques and strategies. One stress management technique that has been shown to reduce stress and improve the body’s functioning is yoga. Yoga has been shown to help blood pressure recovery, reduce hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response, improve immune and endocrine functions, balance hormones, mitigate stress-induced DNA damage, and prevent disease progression (Benvenutti et al., 2017; Beri, 2017; Sharma et al., 2019). In addition, yoga has been able to help people engage in positive habits like healthy eating and taking medication consistently (Sharma et al., 2019). Because of all these benefits, a prevention program should be created to increase people’s participation in yoga to reduce stress and prevent cancer.
Over the course of the last three weeks, I practiced yoga for 30-minutes for five days per week. One of the biggest challenges to practicing yoga for me was time. At times over the course of the three weeks, I put yoga on my calendar during times that I did not have any other obligations. However, a few times something for work came up or my family or friend called with an emergency or something to important to discuss. When this happened, it was hard for me to find a different time to practice yoga. My schedule is pretty regimented each day because I am balancing work, school, the podcast I am creating, meal prepping, taking care of my dog, and spending time with loved ones. Additionally, during the three weeks that I was participating in yoga, I attended a bachelorette weekend and a wedding and went on Thanksgiving vacation. Over Thanksgiving, I was staying at my aunt’s house for five days with 15 additional family members. It was difficult to find the time and space to practice yoga when I wasn’t at my house and did not have my usual routine. Fortunately, because I was practicing self-monitoring, I found that yoga helped me cope with stressful personal and professional matters. Because yoga made me feel less stressed and more relaxed, I was more committed to finding the time and space to practice yoga. I also discovered that it is much more realistic to watch a 30-minute yoga video at home than to go to an hour-long yoga class five times per week. During the first week of the project, I had high hopes that I would go to more yoga classes in-person, but it was harder for me to find an hour and a half of time, including the commute and class. Now that I am back from traveling, I have been able to successfully practice yoga five days per week. I have been going to yoga class in person two days per week and watching online yoga videos three days per week. I believe this behavior change will stick because I am able to better manage my stress and engage in physical activity.
References
American Psychological Association. (2020, October). Stress in America™ 2020: A National Mental Health Crisis. American Psychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2020/report-october
Benvenutti, M. J., Alves, E. da, Michael, S., Ding, D., Stamatakis, E., & Edwards, K. M. (2017). A single session of hatha yoga improves stress reactivity and recovery after an acute psychological stress task—a counterbalanced, randomized-crossover trial in healthy individuals. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 35, 120–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2017.10.009
Beri, K. (2017). The impact of the “yogic lifestyle” on cancer prognosis and survival: Can we target cancer stem cells with yoga? International Journal of Yoga, 10(2), 95–98. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-6131.205512
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, October 19). FASTSTATS – leading causes of death. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm.
Sharma, R., Shahi, V. K., Khanduri, S., Goyal, A., Chaudhary, S., Rana, R. K., Singhal, R.,
Taylor, S. E., & Stanton, A. L. (2021). Chapter 6 Stress and Chapter 7 Coping, Resilience, and
and Social Support. In Health Psychology (11th ed., pp. 120-165). McGraw-Hill
Wang, F., & Szabo, A. (2020). Effects of Yoga on Stress Among Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review. ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, 26(4), 58–64.
