Several recent studies have found an unexpected supplemental treatment to anxiety and attention disorders: yoga. The studies have mainly focused on yogas effects on cancer patients, but in the process have discovered potential psychological as well as physiological benefits.

A Nov. 1 article by MedPage Today staff writer Kristina Fiore provided the following details about yoga's potential for helping kids with ADHD:

An Australian study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders concluded that yoga "may have merit as a complementary therapy for boys with ADHD already stabilized on medication."

Heather Peck, PhD, a school psychologist at the Bethany Community School in Bethany, Conn., and her colleagues at the University of Connecticut, performed a study last year on children with attention problems -- although not clinically diagnosed with ADHD.

After taking a yoga class in school, the children had improved attention that was comparable to that of their peers who didn't have attention disorders.

"We found significant effect sizes," Peck said. "Their levels of attention came up close to those of the rest of the kids in the class."

Labels: alternative_medicine, treatment, yoga

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