4 Ways Yoga Affects Your Breast Health

While for skeptics, it might seem like yoga for breast health are two phrases that don’t really belong in the same sentence, for those more attuned to yoga’s subtleties, it likely makes perfect sense.

Yoga can actually affect breast health in a multitude of ways. While, of course, some asanas can actively and physically affect breast tissue, the greater implications of yoga for breast health actually run far deeper.

Yoga for Breast Health: Here Are 4 Ways Yoga Significantly Affects Breast Health

These four ways really only graze the surface of the multitude of ways that yoga can affect your breast health (and overall health!). But they’re a solid start to understanding how powerful yoga can be for your overall health and well-being.

1. Movement Affects All Tissues

   First and foremost, moving your body in any way, shape, or form affects all the tissues of your body. Although, modernly, we like to compartmentalize our bodies into separate systems, muscles, tissue types, and more, in reality, our body is a cohesive whole.

   Therefore, anything you do to affect the whole will, in turn, affect the parts. It’s really that simple. Movement is medicine to the body. It lubricates and hydrates tissues, stimulates an analgesic effect, boosts energy levels, rewires neural connections, strengthens and lengthens muscles, and so, so, much more.

   Despite a wealth of knowledge about the benefits of movement, unfortunately, most of us tend to lead very sedentary lives. But movement can truly transform the way we feel from the outside in and the inside out. And, believe it or not, it can positively affect breast health too!

   Yoga asana is a wonderful form of movement because it is so adaptable. It can be practiced by just about all walks of life and can be modified to suit your body and your specific needs. So if you’re looking for a way to boost breast health, perhaps give yoga a try. The movement will affect your entire physical form, which will then translate to affect your breast health as well.

2. Yoga Stimulates Lymphatic Drainage for Breast Health

   

   Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a central pump like the heart. Instead, lymphatic fluids are moved by various pressure changes caused by … you guessed it—movement! 

   Lymph is moved through the body via pressure gradients from skeletal muscle action, respiratory movement, and contraction of smooth muscle in vessel walls. So, essentially moving your body and breathing deeply helps the lymphatic system to do its important work.

   Breast health (and all bodily health) is very intrinsically connected with the lymphatic system. Lymphatics are essentially the “cleaning crew” of the body, working to drain and remove excess fluids, toxic and harmful cells, and foreign bodies from within us. Movement helps the lymphatic system to do its protective job so well.

   So moving the body through a physical yoga practice drastically helps the lymphatic system to pump lymph across the body. This, in turn, helps to purify and cleanse the breast tissue as needed.

   Therefore, yoga is an excellent tool to help optimize and maintain breast health.

3. Yoga Encourages Self-Care

   

   Did you know that people who floss live, on average, years longer than their peers who don’t?

   Since correlation is not causation, it’s unlikely that the actual flossing is what creates a longer lifespan. (However, of course, there is actual research that does link flossing with less inflammation, which potentially keeps cardiovascular disease at bay!) What is probably more plausible is that people who floss tend to take better care of their health than those who don’t.

   Similarly, people who practice yoga are probably more likely to look after their health in other ways as well. They likely drink and smoke less, move more, eat healthier, sleep better, and maybe even floss more than their peers who don’t practice yoga.

   Therefore, it’s probably safe to say that by simply practicing yoga, you’ll be more inclined to care for your body as a whole (including caring for your breast health). 

   Also, practicing yoga tends to make most people more self-aware and self-loving. This likely means that yogis are more likely to practice self-breast exams and follow up with their doctors regularly. And, of course, we all know that looking out for ourselves is the best preventive medicine in the long run. 

4. Yoga Improves Mental Health (Which Is Basic Health!)

   

   Yoga does far more than simply benefit the physical body. Yoga also deeply affects the mind. And, again, while our modern society likes to compartmentalize body parts and separate them from the mind, we all know that they are intrinsically linked.

   Mental health can drastically affect physical health and vice versa. Therefore, simply by caring for our mental health through practices like yoga, we are greatly affecting our physical health as well. And, of course, this includes breast health. 

The Takeaway on Yoga for Breast Health

Yoga does a great many things for us—both physically and mentally. So it isn’t so farfetched to think that yoga can also positively affect our breast health. At first glance, yoga for breast health might sound a bit airy-fairy, but upon closer examination, you can see how yoga can positively affect breast health (and overall health) in the long run.