Lucy Gill, 09/02/2024, 277384
Unit 25 Complimentary Therapies – Assignment 1
Complimentary therapies are an alternative medical practice or non-mainstream practice
that are used alongside medical treatment to aid the recovery to enhance overall well being
and promote healing. This should not replace the medical treatment you have in place it
should be used along side it to enhance you physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Complimentary therapies have many different benefits for many conditions.
An individual who suffers from Arthritis currently attends yoga classes as it is believed to
have many benefits. Arthritis is a condition where it causes pain and swelling in the joints.
Yoga is a holistic practise which consists of physical postures, breath control, meditation and
ethical principles. Yoga will benefit this individual as you are moving your joints through their
full range of motion which improves joint flexibility and function which will help reduce the
pain they may have as you are lubricating the joints. In yoga you may perform standing
poses which helps promote balance by strengthening and stabilising muscles which will
provide better support to the joints which may reduce pain/discomfort. Another benefit of
yoga is it can improve sleep, which with the constant pain the individual may be in the
relaxation techniques incorporated in yoga may contribute to better sleep which will help
their overall health and well being. Yoga also balances the mind, body and spirit which helps
the individual to promote healing as arthritis can be a challenging condition and the
individual may find it hard in day-to-day life to deal with pain and yoga can help balance the
negative energy with the positive as the pain may be manageable after attending the yoga
classes.
Within a randomised controlled pragmatic trail, a group of 75 sedentary adults with
rheumatoid arthritis or knee osteoarthritis attended to 8 weeks of yoga – two 60 min class
and one hour practise at home. From everyone completing yoga they explored the effects at
9 months. They concluded that Yoga “increases physical activity and improves physical and
psychological health and HRQOL (health-related quality of life). This shows that the benefit
of this complimentary therapies is it balances of mind, body and spirit as the individual's
psychological health has been improved. This mean that there mental or emotional health
has improved which benefits the person as they feel positive after attending yoga although
the struggle with arthritis. In another article there was a scoping review of yoga for people
who suffer from arthritis. A scoping review identifies gaps in knowledge on a specific topic
which in this case they were reviewing “existing literature on the use of yoga for persons
with arthritis”. They concluded that there was strong evidence in the reduction of the
disease symptoms such as the tenderness/swollen joints and the pain. Also, it was found
that it improved self-efficiency and mental health. This back up the idea that it improved the
balance of the mind, body and spirit as the overall effect has improved their self-efficacy
meaning they have become more independent since attending which has improved their
mental health state.
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25834206/)
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026480/ )
Yoga is mainly beneficial for people who suffer from arthritis, however there is some
negatives to yoga. One negative is some yoga poses may be too advance or overstretch their
muscles so if they are not adapting and meeting to the individual needs then it can
1
Unit 25 Complimentary Therapies – Assignment 1
Complimentary therapies are an alternative medical practice or non-mainstream practice
that are used alongside medical treatment to aid the recovery to enhance overall well being
and promote healing. This should not replace the medical treatment you have in place it
should be used along side it to enhance you physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Complimentary therapies have many different benefits for many conditions.
An individual who suffers from Arthritis currently attends yoga classes as it is believed to
have many benefits. Arthritis is a condition where it causes pain and swelling in the joints.
Yoga is a holistic practise which consists of physical postures, breath control, meditation and
ethical principles. Yoga will benefit this individual as you are moving your joints through their
full range of motion which improves joint flexibility and function which will help reduce the
pain they may have as you are lubricating the joints. In yoga you may perform standing
poses which helps promote balance by strengthening and stabilising muscles which will
provide better support to the joints which may reduce pain/discomfort. Another benefit of
yoga is it can improve sleep, which with the constant pain the individual may be in the
relaxation techniques incorporated in yoga may contribute to better sleep which will help
their overall health and well being. Yoga also balances the mind, body and spirit which helps
the individual to promote healing as arthritis can be a challenging condition and the
individual may find it hard in day-to-day life to deal with pain and yoga can help balance the
negative energy with the positive as the pain may be manageable after attending the yoga
classes.
Within a randomised controlled pragmatic trail, a group of 75 sedentary adults with
rheumatoid arthritis or knee osteoarthritis attended to 8 weeks of yoga – two 60 min class
and one hour practise at home. From everyone completing yoga they explored the effects at
9 months. They concluded that Yoga “increases physical activity and improves physical and
psychological health and HRQOL (health-related quality of life). This shows that the benefit
of this complimentary therapies is it balances of mind, body and spirit as the individual's
psychological health has been improved. This mean that there mental or emotional health
has improved which benefits the person as they feel positive after attending yoga although
the struggle with arthritis. In another article there was a scoping review of yoga for people
who suffer from arthritis. A scoping review identifies gaps in knowledge on a specific topic
which in this case they were reviewing “existing literature on the use of yoga for persons
with arthritis”. They concluded that there was strong evidence in the reduction of the
disease symptoms such as the tenderness/swollen joints and the pain. Also, it was found
that it improved self-efficiency and mental health. This back up the idea that it improved the
balance of the mind, body and spirit as the overall effect has improved their self-efficacy
meaning they have become more independent since attending which has improved their
mental health state.
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25834206/)
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026480/ )
Yoga is mainly beneficial for people who suffer from arthritis, however there is some
negatives to yoga. One negative is some yoga poses may be too advance or overstretch their
muscles so if they are not adapting and meeting to the individual needs then it can
1
