Yoga Helps Caregivers, per 3/14/12 PsycheCentral.com Article

I highly recommend taking a peek at the article at this link related to caregivers and yoga.

psychcentral.com/news/2012/03/14/yoga-helps-caregivers/35959.html [1]

To get you enticed, here's how it starts:

For everyone who has Alzheimer’s — some 5.4 million persons in the United States alone — there’s a related victim: the caregiver. Whether it is a spouse, child, relative or friend, taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s can lead to loneliness, exhaustion, stress, and depression [2].

A new study from the University of California, Los Angeles, finds that practicing yoga each day can improve cognitive functioning and lower levels of depression for caregivers.

There’s an added benefit: A reduction in stress-induced cellular aging, reports Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

“We know that chronic stress places caregivers at a higher risk for developing depression,” she said. “On average, the incidence and prevalence of clinical depression in family dementia caregivers approaches 50 percent. Caregivers are also twice as likely to report high levels of emotional distress.”

While medication can improve depression, many caregivers may be opposed to the use of medication because of the associated costs and possible side effects. That consideration motivated Lavretsky and her colleagues to test a mind-body intervention for stress reduction.

The researchers.... (please follow the link/above).

This always makes me chuckle, research on yoga and depression. In my senior year of OT school, research methods was a class in the final semester. We had tons of group projects in the whole program in order to help us learn to be part of teams. Anyone who has been a student knows how much 'fun' it is if you're not on a really good team. I was on a good-student team, but was the only one with two X chromasomes; one of the guys used running as a therapy for depression and wanted to study that. I had been doing yoga for several years related to recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome and so my interest at the library was captured by something about yoga and depression being JUST as effective as aerobic activity/exercise and depression. But the guy in my group who was so personally attached to the running/depression concept didn't want to believe it nor to incorporate it into our paper. I'd worked for 8 years in research prior to going back to complete this degree and so I stuck to my guns about not being biased with what you put into the paper based on your personal opinions!

It was one thing after another with them -- I was the person putting all the pieces together and they failed to get things to me in the deadline agreed upon. I'd also insisted they give things to me in 100% APA format so they learned that aspect of things; I naturally knew that stuff backwards and forwards and wouldn't be giving THEM the education if I did it 'for' them. But I learned if you wanted the best control over the grade, to be the one putting the thing together for the group projects, and had lots of experience as I'd taken pieces from teams of researchers to make published documents for over a decade in my late teens at my first job in college typing for the statistics department and then through until I was about 30.

So I end up pushing on deadlines, having to do things they didn't do right with the formatting, and on top of it, they liked to meet a 9 pm on Monday nights. I liked to be done for the day and winding down at 9 pm, but I compromised on that. Didn't want them at my house since my significant other had to get up early for work, so on our final evening meeting when the project was all ready to turn in, they said 'this has just gone really well!'. I decided that, while they had been my friends for two years -- truly, we had some fun dinners and evenings together, it wouldn't be doing them any favors to allow that illusion to continue on. So I spoke up and gave them feedback as the 'project manager'. I hope they were better OTs in the future for it when working on teams, which you always are if you're working even with one other person as a patient.

Anyway, another story from me which might make this more interesting a read in your time at Lumigrate. And I'm just so appreciative of having a place to provide education to people who are seeking this type of info.

~~ Mardy

__________________

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [3] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!