Men with prostate cancer may benefit from yoga, study finds

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Frank Falcone never thought he'd be doing yoga poses.

"Yoga is for women! That's a man's view, there's no way, and I said I'll try it, and so I tried it and I learned to love it. It was a life-changing experience," he said.

After getting a prostate cancer diagnosis, Falcone's recovery included radiation and twice-a-week yoga.

"It made me feel great, I didn't have to get hit with a brick. At the end of the study, at the end of the 55 days of treatment, I felt better than I did before I started," he said.

Dr. Neha Vapiwala, of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, headed the first-of-its-kind study looking at how regular and consistent yoga practice could help men undergoing prostate cancer treatments, especially with fatigue, bladder issues and sexual health.

"This isn't just saying, 'OK well, you can do yoga here or there.' There's importance in the frequency of it and all of this is part of the science of how we think it helps people," Vapiwala said.

After Falcone finished his radiation, he kept exercising and doing yoga and says he wouldn't have it any other way.

The researchers are almost finished with the second randomized part of the study to more accurately measure the direct impact of the routine -- where half the men do yoga during cancer treatments and half don't.