Below, Dr. Oken discusses his study's finding that people in both the yoga and aerobic exercise groups experienced less fatigue, and what people with MS should keep in mind when choosing an exercise program.
Why did you decide to look at the benefits of yoga in MS patients?
I thought that yoga might be beneficial in terms of cognitive function in multiple sclerosis, where there are significant cognitive problems, such as difficulty concentrating. So cognitive function was the primary outcome measure in the study, and the all the quality of life measures such as fatigue and mood were secondary outcome measures.
Yoga and aerobic exercise have a lot of similar properties, but yoga might offer some other plusses. Yoga has a stress reduction or relaxation component, which may be helpful for people with MS or other conditions. For example, you concentrate on your breathing. People who are doing aerobic exercise may be doing that as well, but it may not be quite as overt. Yoga also improves joint flexibility through stretching, which is not as important in most exercise routines. Joint flexibility may be good in arthritis and other kinds of joint symptoms.
There are also yoga poses where there is significant strengthening of, for example, the shoulder girdle muscles, which is not happening if somebody is running or doing an exercise bicycle. And yoga improves balance.
