Yoga
works at the level of wave particle duality of the body. By shifting from
sympathetic to parasympathetic mode it can heal and help various conditions as
below.
· Yoga can relieve chronic stress: A small study done at the University of Utah conducted in experienced
yoga practitioners, people with fibromyalgia and healthy volunteers showed that
yoga increased tolerance to stress. People who had a poorly regulated response
to stress were also more sensitive to pain, while the yoga practitioners had
the highest pain tolerance (Harvard
Health).
·
Yoga can reduce anxiety: Twelve sessions of regular hatha yoga exercise significantly reduced
stress, anxiety and depression in women suggesting its role as complementary
medicine, which also reduces treatment cost by reducing the use of drugs (Masoumeh
Shohani, et al. The effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression in women.
Int J Prev Med. 2018;9:21).
·
Yoga can reduce depression: A study of older men, average age 61 years, with high levels of
depression, presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American
Psychological Association in 2017 showed that following a twice-weekly hatha
yoga program reduced the symptoms of depression after eight weeks of
intervention; they also enjoyed the yoga classes (https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/new-study-finds-yoga-significantly-reduces-depression-in-male-veterans).
·
Yoga can improve heart health: Yoga improves cardio-metabolic health including improved BMI, systolic
BP, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and thus may reduce the risk of heart
disease (Chu P, et al. The effectiveness of yoga in modifying risk factors
for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and
meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Eur J Prev Cardiol.
2016;23(3):291-307).
·
Yoga can alleviate chronic low back pain: Yoga is a safe and effective intervention for chronic low back pain as
it reduced functional disability and was more effective in reducing pain
severity or “bothersomeness” of the chronic low back pain compared to usual
care or no care (Chang DG, et al. Yoga as a treatment for chronic low back
pain: A systematic review of the literature. J Orthop Rheumatol.
2016;3(1):1-8).
·
Yoga can keep the brain healthy: Healthy elderly women who practiced hatha yoga for at least 8 years had
greater cortical thickness in the left prefrontal cortex (lateral middle
frontal gyrus, anterior superior frontal gyrus and dorsal superior frontal
gyrus), which relates to cognitive behavior, compared to a group of matched
controls. (Afonso RF, Balardin JB, Lazar S, et al. Greater cortical
thickness in elderly female yoga practitioners-a cross-sectional study. Front
Aging Neurosci. 2017;9:201).
·
Yoga can help control anger: In a study of 152 participants from nine Swedish correctional facilities
randomly assigned to a 10-week yoga group, yoga improved emotional well-being.
Positive affective states (such as calm, relaxed, and content) increased, while
negative affective states (such as hostile, upset and nervous) decreased (Kerekes
N, et al. Yoga in correctional settings: a randomized controlled study. Front
Psychiatry. 2017;8:204).
·
Yoga can improve balance and prevent falls: Yoga classes reduced self-reported falls and improved balance measures.
Right leg stand time improved from a mean of 13.3s to 17.1s and standing
forward reach distance from 26.0cm to 29.6cm. The number of falls in older
adults reduced by 48% after six months of yoga classes
(Hamrick I, et al. Yoga's effect on falls in rural, older adults.
Complement Ther Med. 2017;35:57-63).
·
Yoga can improve thyroid function: Yoga improved thyroid function in patients with thyroid disorders.
Significant differences were noted between thyroid hormone status before and
after the intervention with improvement in tiredness, hair loss, constipation,
weight loss, tremors and laziness (Sharma K, et al. The effect of yogic
practices on thyroid functions. Indian Journal of Applied Research.
2017;4(7):526-7). In another study, 6 months practice of yoga improved
cholesterol level, serum TSH, may also help in reducing the thyroxine
requirement in female patients suffering from hypothyroidism (Nilakanthan S,
et al. Effect of 6 months intense Yoga practice on lipid profile, thyroxine
medication and serum TSH level in women suffering from hypothyroidism: A pilot
study. J Complement Integr Med. 2016;13(2):189-93).
·
Yoga can improve control of diabetes: Yoga led to significant reduction in blood glucose levels, both fasting
and post prandial, in patients with type 2 diabetes suggesting a potential role of yoga in preventive and management
strategies for type 2 diabetes (Chimkode SM, et al. Effect of yoga on
blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. J Clin Diagn
Res. 2015;9(4):CC01-3).
·
Yoga can enhance immune system: Chronic stress can weaken the immune system. By reducing stress, yoga
improves symptoms (Harvard Health). Yoga and meditation-based
lifestyle intervention significantly reduced the rate of cellular aging in
apparently healthy population. Compared to
baseline values, significant improvements were noted in both the cardinal
biomarkers of cellular aging and the metabotrophic biomarkers influencing
cellular aging After 12 weeks of the intervention (Tolahunase M, et al.
Impact of yoga and meditation on cellular aging in apparently healthy
individuals: a prospective, open-label single-arm exploratory study. Oxid Med
Cell Longev. 2017;2017:7928981).
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma
Shri Awardee
Vice
President CMAAO
Group
Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President
Heart Care Foundation of India
Immediate Past National President IMA
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