U.S. Looks At New Age, Holistic Therapies For Veterans

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U.S. Looks At New Age, Holistic Therapies For Veterans

Alternative Therapies In Play As Government Tackles Damaged Psyches Of Vets

By ANN MARIE SOMMA

 

Courant Staff Writer

August 25, 2008

 

The U.S. military is spending $4 million to figure out whether New Age

practices and holistic therapies can mend the wounded psyches of its troops.

 

Concerned with the high number of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan diagnosed

with post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries, the government is

handing out grants to conduct clinical studies on everything from yoga, to

Reiki, to animal assisted therapy, to transcendental meditation.

 

The Department of Defense says it " supports the use of alternative therapies

if they are proved efficacious, " according to its request for proposals,

which closed May 15.

 

Lola Scarborough, owner of Yoga Lola Studio in League City, Texas, applied

for a $300,000 research grant to document the benefits of Kundalini yoga on

veterans.

 

Kundalini yoga, Scarborough said, awakens an untapped reserve within each of

us — envisioned as a sleeping serpent in the base of the spine, whose power

can help veterans deal with anger, flashbacks, depression and anxiety,

symptoms often associated with PTSD.

 

" There is a big problem with people coming back from war. They are able to

survive physical wounds through body armor, but they are blowing up their

brains, " Scarborough said.

 

In Connecticut, yoga therapy isn't offered at the VA hospital in West Haven

or clinic in Newington, but veterans can take classes outside the VA network

at their own expense, said Pamela Redmond, a VA spokesperson.

 

Many yoga studios, understanding that PTSD is chronic, are offering free

yoga classes to veterans. Recently, the New York Sports Clubs in Queens

organized a free weekly veterans yoga class to complement the services

provided by a nearby veteran center.

 

Three years ago, the Central Mass Yoga Institute in West Boylston, Mass.,

invited veterans who were receiving counseling at the Worcester Veteran

Center to a free yoga tryout.

 

Today, more than a dozen combat-weary veterans stretch their way to serenity

every Tuesday and Thursday morning in a carpeted room with a large sign that

reads: " Beyond Body, Breath & Mind Lies Silence. "

 

Silence from the demons of the Vietnam War is what Louie Naple seeks during

the yoga classes.

 

" Sometimes it gets so real, I can see the combat. Anything can set it off —

a sound or a smell, " said Naple, 62, who served two tours in Vietnam with

the Marine Corps. " Yoga helps me feel calm when I'm here and it keeps my

mind from wandering. "

 

Practitioners of yoga, an ancient Hindu practice of meditation through

controlled breathing, balancing and stretching, have touted its benefits to

relieve stress and trauma. Even soldiers in Iraq have caught on to the

discipline with reports of troops doing yoga aboard aircraft carriers and on

the ground.

 

A RAND Corporation study released earlier this year found that 19 percent of

the approximately 1.6 million U.S. military personnel who have served in

Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from symptoms of PTSD.

 

Matthew Friedman, the executive director of the VA's National Center for

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, said the government's desire to find

scientific proof that yoga and holistic therapies benefit PTSD sufferers is

a positive move.

 

" This is what science is all about, testing something that a lot of people

out there say works, " Friedman said.

 

Scarborough said even if she doesn't receive the federal grant to document

the healing benefits of yoga, she'll offer classes to veterans.

 

" If I can't get the funding, we are going to raise donations so that we can

offer the service to soldiers free of charge, " Scarborough said.

 

Contact Ann Marie Somma at asomma.

 

To see more photos of the veterans' yoga class at the Central Mass Yoga

Institute, visit www.courant.com/vetsyoga

 

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