Benefits of Yoga – reconfirmed
Extracts from a news report dt Dec 28 ’07 “Studies show yoga has multiple benefits” (if proof was needed)
***
…Yoga induces a feeling of well-being in healthy people, and can reverse the clinical and biochemical changes associated with metabolic syndrome, according to results of studies from Sweden and India.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and high blood sugar.
…
Dr. R.P. Agrawal, of the SP Medical College, Bikaner, India, and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation in 101 adults with features of metabolic syndrome.
…Waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides were significantly lower, and “good” HDL cholesterol levels were higher in the yoga group as compared to controls, Agrawal’s team reports in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.
In the second study (from Sweden)…Fifty-five adults were advised to practice “Sudarshan Kriya,” which involves cycles of slow normal and rapid breathing exercises.
…At the end of the study period, feelings of anxiety, stress and depression were significantly lower and levels of optimism significantly higher in the yoga group compared to the control group, Kjellgren and colleagues report.
Yoga induces a “relaxation response” associated with reduced nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being probably due to an increase in antioxidants and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, they suggest.
Not that most readers of my blog needed this reconfirmation…but it is nice to know that practitioners of Yoga are not just dumb, superstitious Hindu fundamentalists 
Related Posts:
***
Adjacent Post: Expropriation of Hindu Concepts and Traditions…
More evidence.
Meditation ‘cuts risk of heart attack by half’:
Patients with heart disease who practised Transcendental Meditation cut their chances of a heart attack, stroke and death by half, compared with non-meditating patients, the first study of its kind has found.
Stress is a major factor in heart disease and meditation experts say the technique can help control it.
More benefits of Yoga:
Researchers have found that three sessions of the exercise a week can help fight off depression as it boosts levels of a chemical in the brain which is essential for a sound and relaxed mind.
Scientists found that the levels of the amino acid GABA are much higher in those that carry out yoga than those do the equivalent of a similarly strenuous exercise such as walking.
…
The research is good news for yoga which along with pilates was criticised earlier this month for not pushing the body as hard as other exercises. The University of Wisconsin said that it fell short of what was considered an all-round workout.
They found that while yoga did improve strength, endurance, balance and flexibility, they burned very few calories — suggesting they had not pushed their bodies hard enough to gain substantial aerobic improvements.
In fact, researchers found that a typical class used 144 calories in 55 minutes— the same amount burned during a slow walk.
Even power yoga, which requires participants to perform poses in quick succession, was found to burn only about 237 calories per class and to boost the heart rate to only 62 per cent of the maximum that constitutes a light aerobic workout.
Well, Yoga was not supposed to substitute a cycling or plain old running using your foot. Those were the techniques to improve the body so that mind can become capable of deeper concentration. Gaining a six-pack was never the end-game of yoga and it is these faulty expectations that makes me very suspicious of the new-age yoga business-clans.
More on benefits of Yoga..>Excerpts from Ancient Moves for Orthopedic Problems by Jane Brody (emphasis added):
Many years ago, I wrote about Dr. Fishman’s nonsurgical treatment of piriformis syndrome…
Dr. Fishman developed a simple diagnostic technique for piriformis syndrome and showed that an injection into the muscle to break up the spasm, sometimes followed by yoga exercises or brief physical therapy, relieves the pain in an overwhelming majority of cases.
Nowadays yoga exercises form a centerpiece of his practice. Dr. Fishman, a lifelong devotee of yoga who studied it for three years in India before going to medical school, uses various yoga positions to help prevent, treat, and he says, halt and often reverse conditions like shoulder injuries, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and scoliosis. I rarely devote this column to one doctor’s approach to treatment, and I’m not presenting his approach as a cure-all. But I do think it has value.
…
For many years, yoga teachers and enthusiasts have touted the benefits to the body of this ancient practice, but it is the rare physician who both endorses it and documents its value in clinical tests. Dr. Fishman has done both.
…
Instead of an operation that can cost as much as $12,000, followed by four months of physical therapy, with no guarantee of success, Dr. Fishman’s treatment, is an adaptation of a yoga headstand called the triangular forearm support. His version can be done against a wall or using a chair as well as on one’s head.
…Dr. Fishman, who has since treated more than 700 patients with this technique, said it has helped about 90 percent of them. “It doesn’t work on everyone — not on string musicians, for example, whose shoulder muscles are overtrained,” he said in an interview.
…
Perhaps more important from a public health standpoint is the research Dr. Fishman is doing on yoga’s benefits to bones. Bone loss is epidemic in our society, and the methods to prevent and treat it are far from ideal. Weight-bearing exercise helps, but not everyone can jog, dance or walk briskly, and repeated pounding on knees and hips can eventually cause joint deterioration.
Strength training, in which muscles pull on bones, is perhaps even more beneficial, and Dr. Fishman has observed that osteoporosis and resulting fractures are rare among regular yoga practitioners.
Share your thoughts below.
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter
Support
Archives
Join the Community
Recent Comments
Categories
Do Not Copy
Recent Posts
Most Commented
.
Search
Most Viewed (since Dec '09)
.