Case Study: Yoga and Gastrointenstinal Distress

by Baxter

Angry Doe by Marie Lossky (@Marie.Lossky on Instagram)

For over 15 years, I have been seeing clients and yoga students regularly in one-on-one sessions to address many different health issues using yoga’s powerful tools. Today, I’d like to share a short case study that looks at the effect of yoga on gastrointestinal symptoms. 

SB is a 50-year old professional women who initially came to see me for yoga recommendations on how to address her long-standing low back pain, with a secondary concern about her stress levels. Interestingly, she did not mention having any difficulties with her digestive system until we had been working together for several years. In my experience, this is not so unusual, as many people are reluctant to discuss issues related to elimination unless directly asked. So, for the first years of our work together, we focused on designing a home practice that could address her lower back and stress levels, which included a mixture of asana, pranayama, and meditation. She typically did her home practice right after work or before a dance class she was able to re-join as her back pain improved. And although her stress levels improved over time, she continued to note that her work was an ongoing stressor. 

When she asked if we could design a short morning practice that she could do before work at home with her partner, who also had a history of chronic low back pain, I said of course, and immediately created one. And this new addition to her home practice came with an unexpected beneficial side effect! She returned a few weeks after starting her new morning practice to report that to her amazement some annoying gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms had disappeared after a few days of her morning yoga practice. She reported that for years she would have a bout of explosive diarrhea each morning shortly after arriving at work. The addition of her morning yoga had completely resolved this daily inconvenience. In my opinion, it is likely that her GI symptoms were stress-related, and that the morning yoga was addressing that by reducing her stress levels. As she herself said:  

“As an added benefit, [after starting my morning practice] I also immediately reduced morning GI issues related to stress. This wasn’t something I imagined would occur, but it was a welcome secondary benefit. I believe doing the home practice in the morning before work helped regulate my nervous system as well as help stretch and strengthen my body.” 

Although persistent GI symptoms warrant a visit to your doctor to rule out more serious underlying conditions, a good starting place for new, milder symptoms that could be directly related to stress is trying yoga’s stress management tools. For specific recommendations, check out Using Stress Management Techniques for Medical Conditions and  How Yoga Helps Your Digestive System.

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