Another Weapon in the Fight Against Parkinson’s Disease: Yoga Therapy

There are few things in life that can be more terrifying and potentially disastrous than getting a diagnosis of having Parkinson’s disease. Facing the prospect of having your body literally giving out on you and you not being able to exert any sort of control over it can be a difficult thing to contend with.

While medical science has come a long way in the treatment of Parkinson’s, present day medical treatments are still lacking in having a huge effect on this particular condition. However, there are a few ways to effectively deal with the onset of Parkinson’s and there are a few people leading the way on this front. The treatment is yoga therapy and one of the people leading the charge is Colleen Carroll.

As a yoga teacher for over 15 years, Colleen began to consider that yoga was not only helpful for the rank and file, but that yoga could actually be beneficial for people suffering from disorders such as Alzheimer’s, MS, epilepsy and Parkinson’s. This led her to Loyola Marymount University where she studied in the yoga therapy RX program, which is a course on using yoga in a clinical setting. After completing the 2 year program Colleen began to focus her yoga techniques to deal primarily with those suffering from Parkinson’s.

While there are many deeply complicated issues surrounding why and how Parkinson’s effects the human body, the main issue with this condition is that it effects gait, muscle coordination and balance. With yoga therapy, these are combated through simple techniques of breathing, proper posture and simple but specific movements. While Parkinson’s results in tremors and muscle rigidity, therapeutic yoga is aimed at promoting fluidity and control.

While this is certainly no miracle cure, these simple techniques have shown great promise in combating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, prevention of the worsening of the disease and has also proven to improve the physiological effect this disease has on a person such as anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.

Parkinson’s disease can be a scary and troubling diagnosis to get, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Medications can certainly help, but medicines are not the only line of defense when battling Parkinson’s disease. With yoga therapy, you can have a way to not only fight and battle back Parkinson’s disease, but you can improve your quality of life in the process.