Hospital-Yoga-Sweden

InternationalSpotlight by Göran BollSomething is happening in Sweden...and exhale! Now, slowly open your eyes and come back to the room.T he setting is a small gym at the phys- Media caught on. First there was a pro- ical therapy clinic of Danderyd´s hos- gram on national radio; then several nation- pital a few miles north of Stockholm. al television stations picked it up as a newsI am standing in front of a small group of story. Some 40 newspapers and maga-men and women, all of them with recent zines—even BBC World Radio—had piecesmyocardial infarctions and here for their on hospital yoga in Sweden. The media cov-weekly rehabilitation session. Since January erage accelerated interest from other hospi-2010 one-hour Yoga sessions have been part tals. A children's hospital in Gothenburgof the hospital´s regular treatment strategy booked training for all of their physical ther-for this type of patient. apists; a unit working with eating disorders in a Falun hospital booked a full semester of Yoga? As part of ordinary treatment training for their entire staff.programs in Swedish hospitals? How didthis happen? At Danderyd where it all began the stroke unit decided in September 2010 that In the fall of 2007 the heart clinic at Dan- they also wanted to take part in this interest-deryd´s hospital booked an introduction to ing new (or should I say old?) method, andMedical Yoga at a kickoff event. Medical will start using Medical Yoga with patientsYoga, developed at the Institute for Medical early in 2011. The same hospital also hasYoga (IMY) in Stockholm, is a therapeutic another study on Medical Yoga for peopleform of Kundalini Yoga based on the teach- with atrial fibrillation, running fromings of Yogi Bhajan. At this session doctors, November 2009 until March 2011. Morenurses, and physical therapists took part in studies are on the way in Sweden.an hour of Yoga. We did simple pranayamalike long deep breathing, a few bending and The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm istwisting chair exercises for the spine, and studying Medical Yoga for spine problems (notdeep relaxation ending with a simple to be confused with the Karolinska Universitypulse meditation. Everyone found the Yoga Hospital in Stockholm, which is starting aso fascinating that it was decided to run a study on Medical Yoga and heart failure, insmall pilot study with Yoga at Dan-deryd as a secondary preventionagainst myocardial infarction. The study started in Decem-ber of 2008 with 30 patients doingYoga once a week for 12 weeks,with home assignments; another30 patients received ordinary post-operation rehabilitative physicaltherapy. A home assignment,largely mirroring the introductorysession we'd led, consisted of 30-40minutes of 4-6 simple exercises.The patients receiving Yoga all hadbetter outcome measurementsthan the control group for corticallevels, blood pressure, sense ofwell-being, and subjectively im-proved overall health. As a result of this small study,together with all the already pub-lished international studies onYoga for the heart, the decisionwas made to implement MedicalYoga as part of regular rehab pro-grams at Danderyd.5 YogaTherapyToday December 2010

March 2011). At the Falun hospital where train- Akademiska hospital in the city of Uppsala.ing took place for Medical Yoga and eating dis- The current attitude toward Yoga inorders, a study on that subject is planned. Swedish hospitals is a result of medical IMY has been working toward develop- authorities' demands for solid—preferablying Yoga programs for patients with heart Swedish—research on the effects of Yogadisease and other health challenges for more therapies before they allow the use of Yogathan 12 years. In 2010 some 300 nurses, doc- or any other alternative therapy withtors, physical therapists, and others have patients. All of the ongoing and plannedtaken its trainings. research paves the way for more Yoga in Swedish hospitals in the years to come. Sweden is a small country in northern Other Yoga systems are closely monitoringEurope near the Arctic Circle and is roughlythe same size as California but with a popu- fthooistspterposc.eYssTTand will surely follow in ourlation of just over 9 million. Since World WarII Sweden has been the European country For more informationthat most closely follows American trends. contact Göran Boll atSo it should surprise no one that Yoga is as the Institute for Med-popular and in demand in Sweden as it is in ical Yoga (IMY):the United States. Every gym and fitness cen- [email protected] has one or two brands of Yoga to offer.Yoga courses can be found in many work- far only allowed Medical Yoga from IMYplaces and it is estimated 500,000 people and Satyananda Yoga to be used as treat-practice Yoga in one way or another. The ment for patients. The Satyananda Yogathree major Yoga forms found in Sweden are School is involved in an ongoing projectPower Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, and Kundalini with Yoga for patients with cancer at theYoga. The medical world in Sweden has beenvery restrictive toward Yoga and has thus December 2010 YogaTherapyToday 6