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Exercise & Fitness for Senior Citizens

Group Yoga Helps Stroke Victims Improve Function, Balance

Helps patients long after stroke; cost effective; may help them be more active; oldest over 90

July 27, 2012 Group yoga can improve motor function and balance in stroke survivors, even if they don't begin yoga until six months or more after the stroke and no longer receive rehabilitative care, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. One patient was in his 90s.

In a small pilot study, researchers tested the potential benefits of yoga among chronic stroke survivors -- those whose stroke occurred more than six months earlier.

"For people with chronic stroke, something like yoga in a group environment is cost effective and appears to improve motor function and balance," said Arlene Schmid, Ph.D., O.T.R., lead researcher and a rehabilitation research scientist at Roudebush Veterans Administration-Medical Center and Indiana University, Department of Occupational Therapy in Indianapolis, Ind.

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Group Yoga Helps Stroke Victims Improve Function, Balance