Yoga Medical News Daily

Individualized yoga therapy for eating disorders yields positive results

This was a pilot project assessing the effects of individualized yoga treatment on eating disorder outcomes among adolescents.  Fifty girls and 4 boys aged 11-21 years were randomized for an 8-week trial of standard care vs. individualized yoga plus standard care. 

"The Yoga group demonstrated greater decreases in eating disorder symptoms. Specifically, the EDE scores decreased over time in the Yoga group, whereas the No Yoga group showed some initial decline but then returned to baseline EDE levels at week 12. Food preoccupation was measured before and after each yoga session, and decreased significantly after all sessions. Both groups maintained current BMI levels and decreased in anxiety and depression over time."  The results of this study "suggest that individualized yoga therapy holds promise as adjunctive therapy to standard care."  Abstract: PubMed PMID: 20307823.  "Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Yoga in the Treatment of Eating Disorders," by Carei TR, Fyfe-Johnson AL, Breuner CC, Brown MA., Journal of Adolescent Health [2010 Apr;46(4):346-351]

"Overeating is not about the food": women describe their experience of a yoga treatment program for binge eating

" . . . data from 20 personal journals were analyzed to examine the experience of a 12-week yoga treatment program for binge eating among a sample of 25 women who were obese." Findings from the study "provide insights relevant to therapeutic processes that might occur within eating disorder interventions that draw on meditation-based approaches." Published in Qualitative Health Research (September 2009; 19 (9): 1234-45. Abstract at: PubMed.