How Yoga Can Help You Cope with Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a life-altering condition. When I was first diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, one of the suggestions that my doctor made was to do light exercise, even during a flare up, to encourage my digestive system and metabolism to function as best as possible. This is a piece of advice that I have definitely taken to heart.

Yoga is one of the exercises that I have discovered that truly help my ulcerative colitis. When I am having a flare up, I can do the exercises in the privacy of my own home. When I am in remission, as I am now, I can go to the gym and take part in a yoga class.

Now, I must make a clarification. When I speak of yoga, I am not talking about the hot box yoga program where they heat the room hot enough to fry an egg on the bare floor. I am talking about traditional yoga in a comfortable climate controlled room.

Yoga emphasizes stretching, full body and mind communication and core muscle strengthening. These are all reasons why I think that yoga helps me with my ulcerative colitis. The stomach and back are both core muscles. Yoga helps to tone, stretch, and strengthen both of these.

When I am in the middle of an ulcerative colitis flare up, I can use the stomach stretching exercises that I learned in yoga class to help alleviate and sometimes prevent the almost unbearable abdominal cramps and stomach pain.

As I mentioned before, yoga emphasizes focusing on a mind and body connection. This increased awareness of what is going on with my body has helped me to know earlier when a flare up is imminent. It has also helped me to truly recognize my trigger foods.

Overall, I think that, at least in my case, yoga is definitely an ulcerative colitis exercise. It is very difficult to find exercises that I can do even during a flare up but, yoga is one that works because I don't need to leave the house and I didn't have to buy any special equipment except for a yoga mat to make some of the exercises more comfortable for my back.

Before you try yoga, check with your doctor to make sure that there is no reason for you to avoid yoga. Your doctor may advise against you doing some yoga positions because of your medications.