Caregivers provide physical, emotional, or practical support to those in need due to age, illness, disability, or challenging circumstances. Caregivers often experience burnout and compassion fatigue due to the demanding nature of their roles. Burnout involves emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion from prolonged stress and overwork, while compassion fatigue stems from absorbing the suffering of those they care for. These challenges can lead to symptoms such as exhaustion, detachment, and reduced empathy. The significance of yoga for caregivers cannot be overstated; a few research studies are discussed below.
The asanas, breathing, and meditativeness practice offers a holistic approach to address the unique physical, emotional, and mental challenges of their caregiving roles. Caregiving is inherently demanding and exhaustive, often leading to elevated stress levels, and yoga provides caregivers with practical and effective means to reduce stress through postures, breathing, and relaxation techniques. The practice’s meditative aspects promote mental clarity and emotional well-being, allowing caregivers to navigate their responsibilities with a greater sense of calm.
Additionally, caregivers often grapple with anxiety and depression, and yoga is effective in alleviating these symptoms, fostering a calmer, positive mindset. Caregivers often experience sleep disruption, and yoga plays a role in preventing compassion fatigue, offering a space for self-care that helps caregivers recharge and avoid burnout. The coping skills of caregivers are crucial for navigating the challenges associated with their responsibilities, and yoga provides a coping mechanism by fostering resilience and adaptability. Beyond mental health benefits, gentle stretching, postures, and movements in yoga contribute to improved flexibility, strength, and overall physical well-being, addressing the toll caregiving can take on the body.
Caregivers, whether informal family members or formal professionals – social workers, nurses, doctors, residents, and even medical, dental, or pharmacy students, commonly face stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and compassion fatigue. The demands of caregiving can lead to adverse effects on their health, necessitating effective interventions. Yoga therapy studies have explored its impact on caregivers facing various conditions.
Research on Yoga for Caregivers
Healthcare providers often grapple with anxiety and depression, prompting exploration into interventions such as yoga to address these challenges (Broughton, 2016). Similarly, caregivers, often family members, supporting individuals with conditions like stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s experience heightened levels of anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Yoga is beneficial for caregivers, particularly in bolstering their coping skills (O’Donnell, 2013). Engaging in yoga sessions provides caregivers with social support, reducing feelings of isolation.
A feasibility study investigated the effects of yoga on coping and physical health in informal caregivers, comparing it to a control group undergoing physical fitness training (Van Puymbroeck et al., 2007). Both groups experienced benefits, with the yoga group reporting improved coping, upper body strength, and aerobic endurance, while the control group saw increased lower body flexibility.
Additional studies delved into the effects of yoga and meditation on caregivers, revealing promising results. One pilot study demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety and depression scores and an increase in perceived self-efficacy among dementia caregivers (Waelde et al., 2004). Another study involving family caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients showed reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, along with lowered salivary cortisol levels in the yoga group (Danucalov et al., 2013).
In the context of cancer, a fifteen-session yoga program for patients and their family caregivers demonstrated improved mental health, reduced disturbed sleep, and enhanced physical functioning for caregivers (Milbury et al., 2015). Overall, yoga’s holistic approach enhances the well-being of caregivers, enabling them to provide effective and sustainable care for their loved ones.
The positive impact of yoga extended to caregivers of glioma patients, with improvements in overall symptom severity, interference, depressive symptoms, quality of life for fatigued patients, and quality of life for caregivers (Milbury et al., 2019). Dyadic yoga programs for patients undergoing thoracic radiotherapy and their family caregivers also demonstrated significant clinical improvements in physical and social functioning and marginal improvements in vitality and role performance for caregivers (2019).
In a broader context, a study on the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a particular yoga protocol for traumatic brain injury survivors and their caregivers revealed improvements in resilience, positive affect, well-being, and cognition among survivors. Caregivers perceived enhancements in physical and psychological health (Donnelly et al., 2020). A study involving patients in a neurorehabilitation ward and their caregivers experiencing poor mental well-being and psychological distress found that an eight-day yoga intervention resulted in a statistically significant reduction of psychological distress and improvement in mental well-being among caregivers (Gandhi et al., 2019).
A randomized controlled trial assessing the effects of yoga on caregivers of children and adolescents who have cancer showed decreased anxiety in participants after the intervention, making yoga a valuable tool for healthcare professionals and other caregivers in hospitals (Bernardi et al., 2019). Incorporating gentle yoga poses and breathing exercises can decrease the likelihood of cardiometabolic disease in caregivers by preventing the onset of insulin resistance. This is highlighted in the study by Lee et al. (2022) on the effects of a yoga-based stress reduction intervention, which examines its impact on stress, psychological outcomes, and cardiometabolic biomarkers in cancer caregivers.
Moreover, yoga’s role in supporting caregivers during challenging situations, such as natural disasters, was explored. A small qualitative study found that yoga was a tool for social support, helping cancer patients and their caregivers manage psychological distress following Hurricane Harvey (Durrani et al., 2019). A pilot study at the beginning of the pandemic showed that yoga components, such as breath exercises, could be practiced to help alleviate acute respiratory distress due to the COVID-19 viral infection (Nagarathna et al., 2020). Yoga is an invaluable tool for COVID-19 and a potential utility instrument for natural disaster-related mental health issues (Ransing et al., 2020).
Notably, the effectiveness of yoga extends beyond patients to encompass familial caregivers, serving as a valuable tool to enhance coping, mental well-being, and physical health. Whether caring for a family member with cancer stroke or supporting individuals facing other health challenges, yoga continues to be an effective instrument for not just patients but a feasible intervention for their caregivers.
References
Bernardi, M. L. D., Amorim, M. H. C., Salaroli, L. B., & Zandonade, E. (2019). Effects of Hatha Yoga on caregivers of children and adolescents with cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Escola Anna Nery, 24.
Broughton, M. K. (2016). Yoga for depression and anxiety: a review of published research and implications for healthcare providers. Rhode Island Medical Journal, 99(3), 20.
Danucalov, M. A. D., Kozasa, E. H., Ribas, K. T., Galduróz, J. C. F., Garcia, M. C., Verreschi, I. T. N., … & Leite, J. R. (2013). A yoga and compassion meditation program reduces stress in familial caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013.
Donnelly, K. Z., Goldberg, S., & Fournier, D. (2020). A qualitative study of LoveYourBrain Yoga: a group-based yoga with psychoeducation intervention to facilitate community integration for people with traumatic brain injury and their caregivers. Disability and Rehabilitation, 42(17), 2482–2491.
Durrani, S., Contreras, J., Mallaiah, S., Cohen, L., & Milbury, K. (2019). The effects of yoga in helping cancer patients and caregivers manage the stress of a natural disaster: A brief report on hurricane Harvey. Integrative cancer therapies, 18, 1534735419866923.
Gandhi, S., Palled, V. K., Sahu, M., Jagannathan, A., Khanna, M., & Jose, A. (2019). Effectiveness of caregivers’ Yoga module on psychological distress and mental well-being among caregivers of patients admitted to neurological rehabilitation wards of a tertiary care institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice, 10(04), 657–665.
Lee, L.J., Shamburek, R., Son, H., Wallen, G.R., Cox, R., Flynn, S., Yang, L., Bevans, M., Wehrlen, L. and Ross, A. (2022). Effects of a yoga-based stress reduction intervention on stress, psychological outcomes and cardiometabolic biomarkers in cancer caregivers: A randomized controlled trial. Plos one, 17(11), p.e0277009.
Milbury, K., Chaoul, A., Engle, R., Liao, Z., Yang, C., Carmack, C., … & Cohen, L. (2015). Couple-based Tibetan yoga program for lung cancer patients and their caregivers. Psycho-oncology, 24(1), 117.
Nagarathna, R., Nagendra, H. R., & Majumdar, V. (2020). A perspective on yoga as a preventive strategy for coronavirus disease 2019. International Journal of Yoga, 13(2), 89.
O’Donnell, R. M. M. (2013). Mindfulness-based stress reduction as an intervention among family caregivers of persons with neurocognitive disorders. The University of Arizona.
Van Puymbroeck, M., Payne, L. L., & Hsieh, P. C. (2007). A phase I feasibility study of yoga on the physical health and coping of informal caregivers. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 4, 519-529.
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