BHUBANESWAR: In 2012 when Bipasa Das suffered from severe abdominal pain and fatigue, she dismissed those as symptoms of unhealthy food habits and lack of rest.
When the condition did not subside, she sought medical help only to be diagnosed with duodenal cancer, a rare form of the disease, in the first section of the small intestine. Her world came crashing down.
The only hope was that the disease was detected at an early stage.
Eight years later, the 50-year-old housewife from Bhubaneswar has learnt how to take care of her body. Yoga has helped her.
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When cancer was detected, she was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi for surgery.
Six chemotherapy sessions later, she was asked by doctors to exercise and go for morning walks.
“After chemo sessions ended, I felt so weak that I no longer had the stamina to do household chores or even walk. I had gained at least 10 kg by then. Since walking was mandatory to improve health, I would take short walks around neighbourhood but even that was tiring,” says Bipasa.
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A year later, she came across Prayas Yoga Institution and yoga therapist Narayan Nanda. “I had never exercised in my life and yoga was new to me. To increase strength and mobility, I decided to take a chance with asanas,” she says.
Bipasa started with Pranayam and Surya Namaskar and began doing light asanas in 2013. The daily practice - at least an hour of yoga for six days a week - helped her immensely.
Pranayam and Surya Namaskar, she says, improved her strength, immune system and flexibility besides, helped her manage stress during this crucial phase of post-operative care.
“Every session of yoga is uplifting and my weight reduced after a year. I have been practising yoga for eight years and now can walk normally. I feel fitter than ever,” says the cancer survivor, adding that there has been no relapse and she is off medications now.
Apart from Pranayam, Surya Namaskar, she practises Bhujangasana, Padmasana and Vajrasana.
Like Bipasa, yoga helped 53-year-old Suresh Chandra Pradhan gain control over his body post cancer treatment.
A driving trainer by profession in Bhubaneswar, Suresh was detected with food pipe cancer in 2007. After a series of medications, surgery and chemo therapies, he lost 20 kg due to loss of appetite and difficulty in swallowing. Yoga, he says, was his last resort.
He enrolled in Prayas Yoga in 2010. “I took to yoga to increase blood circulation and flush out the toxins accrued from chemo. After three months of yoga, the side effects of chemo started subsiding. Slowly, but I started regaining my appetite and further weight loss subsided,” says Suresh, who practises Sasankasana, Bhujangasana, Surya Namaskar, Dakrasana, Sarvangasana, Pranayam and meditation every day.
The asanas, he says, helped him calm down post surgery.
“Stress has a devastating impact on immune system. I needed time to relax because the post-operative period was extremely stressful for me and these asanas, Pranayam particularly, helped me a lot,” he says.
Suresh says he never stopped doing yoga even for a single day in last nine years. Today, he is also a yoga trainer and teaches asanas to people in apartments across Bhubaneswar.