Warrior pose: Yoga catching on as therapy for veterans'PTSD

Army Lt. Col. John Thurman lost 26 co-workers among the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon.He endured severe smoke inhalation while trapped in the construction for 25 minutes. He spent 7days inside the hospital recovering.

In the months when attacks, Thurman found he had post-traumatic stress disorder. Thurman's PTSDmeant he wasn't sleeping months following the attack, in spite of the otc drug he was taking. And hisawesome pulmonary function hadn't returned to full capacity.

But when Thurman started doing yoga, it "made the key Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome differenceinside my capability to contend with the stress and my injury from that day."

He fell so in love with his time toward the mat � with yoga's traditional asanas, or poses, andbreathing � that in 2013 he attended teacher training. He left his job for the Pentagon and isactually now teaching yoga on a full time basis, including along at the Pentagon Athletic Center,where his classes are packed.

This past weekend, Thurman and 17 yoga teachers from five states gathered at Yoga Heights inWashington for yoga for PTSD and trauma training. The studio's workshops were specificallydesigned of healing and help veterans plagued by both the emotional and physical wounds of war.

Of a given 2.3 million American veterans who returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, moreoften 20 percent suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which often includes anxiety, depressionand hypervigilance, which suggests they feel most of the time on the guard.

Professionals say treatment for PTSD with painkillers, antidepressants and psychotherapy almostalways have mixed results. The Veterans Health Administration has launched four pilot programs� including one in Richmond, Va. � offering yoga, acupuncture, Qigong, guided imagery andequine therapies, component of an effort to reduce the dependence of thousands on opiatepainkillers.

Although doctors say the highly addictive drugs can help within the shorter term, in addition theycan easily be harmful and often require another round of prescription pills to counteractuncomfortable side effects, which can certainly include insomnia, constipation, bone pain, anxietyand depression.

Pre-owned therapy programs mark a dramatic departure inside the treatment offered to troopsreturning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sessions with the D.C. studio had titles for instance "The Body and Using Yoga for being TherapeuticMethodology," "Understanding Veteran and Military Culture" and "Why Yoga for Trauma?"

Sitting down on yoga mats and bolsters, teachers who attended also learned about the culture ofveterans � they really work great as a team � and exactly what their specific needs could befrom your practice.

"If you can buy the vet to snooze through the night and they have PTSD, then you're already thus far

along among the process of recovery," said Rob Schware, executive director of one's Give Back YogaFoundation, a nonprofit group that used Mindful Yoga Therapy to host the training.

Jess Pierno's job before she opened Yoga Heights with Amy Rizzotto, also a yoga teacher, was amongthe Office of a given Secretary of Defense, where she started a lunchtime weekly yoga andmeditation class people who worked in the shed.

"The yoga instructors who complete this training will be better fit to teach students who'veexperienced trauma by know how to mindfully adapt a normal yoga class setting and sequence to getmore welcoming, comfortable and beneficial," Pierno said. "Yoga is an extremely important healingtool."

Previously, the traditional Indian practice was more typically connected with blissed-out yogis areprone to ashram, not former service members hunting for inner peace.

But yoga is currently being increasingly embraced through Department of Veterans Affairs and themilitary trying to wean veterans off addictive painkillers as well as offer them alternative treatmentsfor pain.

Suzanne Manafort, who runs Mindful Yoga Therapy, said 49 VA offices are using her program.

Yoga practices are created to help calm the nervous system, she replied.

In Milwaukee, for example, VA introduced an expanded yoga program for veterans in January.Warrior Stance is naturally a free wellness program for those veterans. One session drew 25veterans, double the number expected, the office told local media.

Within a recent study published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, researchers say they foundscientific support that yoga can decrease stress and help move people from the negative andtraumatic thoughts. The investigation was also the very first of the kind offer scientific support foryour benefits of yoga's breathing techniques for PTSD patients.

Thurman said he hopes VA and of course the Defense Department will boost their programs andoffer more yoga to veterans.

"Everybody can use more yoga," he said.