How the clinical application of Yoga Therapy can help with Strokes and Traumatic Brain Injury

θεραπευτικη γιογκα αθηνα

Evi Dimitriadou, presents the rehabilitation she undertook for 6 months and for four hours a day with a patient after a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke have very similar rehabilitation guidelines we hope that this article can show you how much the clinical application of yoga therapy can help.

Although research articles suggest that continued recovery is possible (Freund et al., 2013), systematic reviews recommend intensive therapeutic practice for TBI  within one year of diagnosis (Miyai et al., 2009) with the recovery having the tendency to slow down after the first 6 months reaching highest functional plateau by 12 months (Walker and Pickett, 2007). 

Keeping well detailed records of the daily practices with the exact exercises, of the intensity, of the steadily increased number of repetitions and of the length of time staying performing the exercises and standing upright, was very important in monitoring the patient’s progress and the program’s effectiveness.

The main symptoms were aphasia (difficulty to communicate), nystagmus (tendency to keep falling asleep), headache (may last 6-12 months), reduced sharpness of vision, left hemiparesis (loss of sensation and movement at the specific side) and ataxia (uncoordinated movement), hypostatic hypotension (low blood pressure in standing) which are common signs of TBI and cerebellar dysfunction (Stephen et al., 2019).

The short-term goals were to gain body proprioception (awareness of the body in terms of space) and coordination, balance in the sitting position as well as to be able to stand with minimum support within 2 months while the long-term goals were to walk in 6 months. Goals that were achieved through an intensive program of 4 hours per day since international guidelines such as the Brain Injury guidelines by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation recommend at least 3 hours of rehabilitation program by a multidisciplinary team.

The goals were reached due to the  program’s included task-oriented activities such as sit-to stand (up to 100 utkatasanas per day) and treadmill training, movements for upper and lower limb (many variations of dwipada pitham, jatthara parivritti, apanasana, supta padangustaana, supta badha konasana) on a bobath bed, after the first 2 months more standing practices (small virabadrasana I, tadasana) at an increasingly larger number of repetitions and length of stay within each session, since repetitions play a crucial role in neuroplasticity (Kimberley et al., 2010). The patient regained the body coordination, the sitting position, the standing and the walking ability due to the customized physiotherapy program which focused on retraining proprioception and coordination using visual and sensory stimuli (cues) by showing, touching and communicating constantly with the patient. 

Although different people need different treatments and some people need different services in different phases of their rehabilitation (Turner-Stokes and Wade, 2004) what is common and crucial based on research on neuroplasticity (the ability of creation of new synapses/communication paths within the brain at any age and condition) is the need for an intensive, creative and customized practice. Every person is unique, and this is the reason that rehabilitation is suggested to be customized as yoga therapy is.  

#yogatherapy #stroke #rehabilitation #yogatherapygreece #traumaticbraininjury #intensiveprogram #customizedyogapractice #yogaandrehabilitation

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


More News & Articles

Yoga Therapy for Anxiety Articles
15.03.2024

Yoga Therapy for Insomnia

Based on our experience working with numerous people facing sleep issues, we are pleased to share some information and yoga tools that you might find helpful. Of course, every person is unique, and this is we know very well in yoga therapy, where based on the individual’s needs, energy level, body, breathing pattern, character, lifestyle […]

Articles
02.03.2024

Yoga & Yoga Therapy for every treatment of Cancer

A summary of Evi’s Dimitriadou presentation the British Society of Integrative Oncology on the role of Yoga Therapy to Cancer Patients and survivors. Cancer and Cancer treatment-related side effectsCancer patients and survivors not only experience the disease, but they also sufferfrom cancer treatments’ side effects that may last for years after the completion ofthe treatments. […]

Articles
24.02.2024

Yoga Therapy for Mental Health: Managing Stress, Anxiety and Depression

Yoga Therapy for Mental Health Mental Health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. The main causes for mental health […]

Articles
17.02.2024

Incorporating Yoga Therapy Techniques into Your Existing Yoga Practice

Incorporating Yoga Therapy Techniques into your existing Yoga Practice Yoga and Yoga Therapy Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in ancient India. Yoga practice aims to join the mind, body and spirit through postures, breathing, mental focus, meditation, use of sound, while the ultimate goal is to achieve freedom from life’s […]

Articles
11.02.2024

The Importance of How We Breath

The Breath Breath should not only be an unconscious act. It can be a force, a medicine and a mechanism to gain inner power, to preserve and establish physical or mental health, longevity and even reach higher levels of consciousness. The lung capacity seems to be the greatest indicator of life span in combination with the diet, […]

Yoga Therapy for Anxiety Articles
03.02.2024

Yoga Therapy for Anxiety

In Yoga Therapy for anxiety, we focus on breathing deeply and slowly ideally through the abdomen to enhance grounding and safety (unless otherwise indicated) enhancing the exhalation with humming, with pursed lips exhalation, with inhaling through both nostrils and exhaling through one, by chandra bedhana inhaling through the left and exhaling through the right.  We […]

Articles
29.01.2024

Mental Health and Yoga (with an example of Yoga Therapy for Depression)

In our training we go into great depth regarding the different aspects of mental health from both a scientific (neuroscience and psychology) and a traditional yoga perspective, as well as what we as Yoga Therapists can do to help. Here is just a small extract from our IAYT Accredited Yoga Therapy Training manual relating to […]

Yoga therapy training Articles
20.01.2024

Designing Yoga Therapy Sessions

In this extract from our Yoga Therapy Greece first year training manual we discuss what is yoga therapy, how does yoga differ from yoga and what does a yoga therapy session consist of. We of course throughout our training go into all these elements in a lot greater depth, detail, with theory, practice and a […]

Articles
11.01.2024

Attention, Conscious Awareness and Consciousness       

This essay is an opportunity to share the definitions of some terms we use in our daily life, in yoga, in yoga therapy trainings and in giving yoga therapy without really knowing what they mean. Attention Attention is considered a selective mechanism of information and core of cognitive functions through which stimuli become conscious aware. […]