The secret is out: yoga may be a formidable aid against the development of Parkinson’s. With an emphasis on breath control and heightened flexibility, yoga is believed to be helpful in combating the degenerative aspects of PD, along with the help of in home health care in Boynton Beach.
The American Parkinson Disease Association (or ADPA) has found “yoga therapy [can] reduce tremors and improve the steadiness of an individual’s gait.” The following will look into the benefits of yoga and why this practice can specifically help those with Parkinson’s disease!
Breath Control
At its core, yoga begins and ends with the cycle of breath. Through pranayama, yoga practitioners are empowered to lock into their breathing. The emphasis is directly correlated with improved breath control.
The Parkinson’s Research Foundation states that “controlling your breath [can] help in moments of panic such as feet sticking to the floor when walking.”Thus, through practicing yoga, patients are engaging in controlled preparation for future panicked scenarios.
Promoting Mobility
A main benefit of yoga is its promotion of personal mobility. This benefit is imperative to those with PD: this is because it quells the possibility of suffering a fall due to loss of mobility.
In essence, through practicing yoga, patients with PD can improve functional movement.
This functionality is accomplished through yoga poses that activate the whole body. Poses that can increase mobility include downward dog, pigeon pose, child’s pose, and cobra pose.
Enhancing Balance
Many who are living with PD can benefit from the balance component of a regular yoga practice. This is because yoga not only promotes mobility, it also simultaneously enhances balance. This is due to the marriage between strengthening and lengthening the muscles.
Strengthened muscles insulate the bones better, thus creating a more formidable bone density. Meanwhile, lengthened muscles are more flexible to react to possible falls. In tandem, these phenomena work together to promote improved balance.
Preventing Rigidity through Flexibility
Yoga can aid Parkinson’s through preventing rigidity. This is helpful because one of the main worries about developing PD is heightened rigidity: the sensation of “stiffness” in the arms and legs are one of the main symptoms of Parkinson’s.
Through yoga, this sensation is believed to be prevented with regular poses. In 2014, The University of Kansas Medical Center studied the effects of yoga on Parkinson’s patients. The findings revealed that the improved flexibility was able to stall rigidity issues, and improve motor function. Notably, it was able to improve foot unloading and foot lift off.
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