St Vincent’s Medical Center Offers Yoga For Cancer Patients, Survivors

BRIDGEPORT ­— St Vincent’s Medical Center is offering Free Yoga Classes for Cancer Patients and Survivors.

The free Yoga program is open to cancer survivors undergoing active treatment, as well as those who have completed treatments within the past five years. Yoga can help those recently diagnosed with cancer to prepare mentally, physically and spiritually for upcoming surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years to improve physical and emotional well-being. Research on yoga conducted with cancer patients and survivors yielded improvements in sleep quality, mood, stress, cancer-related distress, cancer-related symptoms and overall quality of life.

Restorative Yoga, which is chair yoga with breathing and meditation, for patients in treatment or post-surgery, is offered on Tuesdays at 10 am at The Watermark, 303 Park Avenue, and Thursdays at 10 am in the Yoga Room on Level 3 of St Vincent’s Elizabeth Pfriem SWIM Center for Cancer Care, adjacent to the Medical Center.

Gentle Yoga, which is for patients in treatment or recently finished, is offered on Saturdays at 8:30 am at Yoga for Everybody, 27 Unquowa Road, Fairfield.

Formal Yoga, for cancer survivors of five years or less, is offered on Wednesdays at 4:30 pm at The Watermark, 3030 Park Avenue.

Call the SWIM line at 203-576-6158 to register, or for more information, email tmclaugh@stvincents.org