"This is the only hour in my week when I dont think about my weight," a girl with a severe eating disorder told researchers.

She was referring to her yoga class.

The girl was one of 50 adolescents (ages 11 to 16 years old) with anorexia, bulimia, or some other eating disorder who were involved in a study about the effects of yoga.

• Half of the students had been hospitalized for their eating disorder, and all were enrolled in a treatment program at Seattle Childrens Hospital.
• Dr. Rain Carel had 25 of the teenagers participate in yoga classes for two months.
  
• While the activity had no effect on their weight, taking the classes reduced their obsessive concerns about weight, food preoccupation, and other measures.
  

This study appeared in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Labels: treatment, yoga, exercise

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Simone Moir is a Scottish yoga guru whose clients have included superstar singers Sting and Madonna. But according to a Nov. 8 article by Laura Davidson of the Sunday Mail newspaper, Moirs appreciation for yoga isnt related to fame or wealth  instead, it has to do with the practices ability to rescue her from the depths of an eating disorder:

At age 16, Simone & was at death's door after years of suffering from anorexia. She reckons her discovery of yoga and meditation saved her.

She said: "I really feel I was given a second chance at life. Doctors had given up on me and my family were helpless around me as I wasted away. I hit rock bottom when I was 16. I was so underweight I was losing my eyesight and wasn't strong enough to walk so had to use a wheelchair. Everyone was convinced I was going to die." &

"In hospital one of the therapies was meditation, which is a big part of yoga. It seemed to rekindle some kind of life fire inside me. I didn't want to make my family sad and didn't want to die. It gave me the strength I needed to help my body heal itself."

Labels: yoga, surviving

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Yoga helps people with eating disorders because the discipline allows them to remain in touch with their feelings, rather than to disassociate with their bodies when they are angry, anxious or sad, according to a report in Psychology Today by Dr. Kelly McGonigal.

A recent study from Deakin University in Australia found that a 12-week yoga program helped obese women with binge eating disorders. Participants had fewer episodes of binge eating, reduced hip and waist measurements, and increases in self-esteem after completing the program.

The answer as to why yoga produces these changes is that binge eating episodes are often triggered by a need to escape unpleasant feelings. Since you are not concentrating on what you are eating, you lose connection with how much you are eating and whether you are hungry or full.

People with eating disorders learn to use conscious breathing and other yoga techniques to "breathe through" negative feelings that trigger eating binges. They can also learn self-compassion and how to avoid beating up on themselves over their behaviors.

Labels: yoga

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