Studying the Effect of Doing Yoga on the Quality of the Life of Women with Breast Cancer: A Review Article

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and the most common form of cancer among women; it accounts for 18% of all cancers in women. Yoga is helping cancer patients to perform their daily and normal activities, achieve relaxation, lower stress, and improve their quality of life. Although this technique cannot cure cancer, it can provide better feelings and better vision for suffering patients. The present research was conducted in order to study the effect of yoga techniques on the quality of life of women with breast cancer.
Method: The present study was conducted by searching keywords, such as yoga, quality of life, breast cancer, and cancer, in various Persian and English databases, including magiran, SID, Google scholars, science direct, and PubMed. Initial search provided several studies on the quality of life of patients with breast cancer and the effect of yoga on the quality of life of different patients, especially cancer patients; then studies that did not have much relevance to the subject matter of the present research were excluded and relative studies were included.
Findings: Yoga can increase the overall health of the body and, consequently, the quality of life of the individual through increasing the power of adaptation of psychic, nervous, immune, cognitive, automated nervous system modifications, physical and body stability and immune system modification. Relaxation and release
of meditation helps to improve the health of the individual, leads to a better feeling in the individual, and thereby improves the quality of life in patients by stabilizing the autonomic nervous system and controlling emotions in yoga.
Conclusion: Given that none of the analyzed studies reported any complications for yoga and since yoga is a technique that can be easily applied anywhere, it is highly recommended to train women with breast cancer and other diseases how to implement this technique in order to improve their quality of life and increase their satisfaction.