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Yoga: research shows it works!


GiaK

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Just felt like sharing this because yoga has been an integral part of my healing as well as rehab after 2 years of having been bed-ridden...yeah, it got me back in shape.

 

Yoga can be foundational to well-being, in a general and broad sense and that is why it has so many applications.

 

Research: Why Does Yoga Work?

see: http://www.centerforwholeselfhealth.com/research-why-does-yoga-work/?goback=%2Egde_48348_member_213141143

Posted February 11, 2013 |

Yoga as a tool for the treatment mood disorders and stress is becoming a widely recognized modality. But why? How does it work?

 

In this article, still in press, five well-published researchers from different institutions, who independently study the effects of yoga on depression and stress as well as other medical conditions like epilepsy, collaborated on an important paper that theorizes why yoga works to restore optimal balance in the central nervous system. Citing their previous studies, the authors hypothesize that yoga works in several ways. First, yoga corrects under activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the aspect of the autonomic nervous system that slows the heart beat and increases digestion, resulting in a calming effect to the body mind. Secondly, yoga elevates gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA), which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter with a calming, anti-stress effect that is often low in people with depression, anxiety and PTSD. The heightened PNS response and the elevation of GABA induced by yoga is in part through the stimulation of the vagus nerve, which is the main pathway of the PNS. “According to the proposed theory,” the researchers state, “the decreased PNS and GABAergic activity that underlies stress-related disorders can be corrected by yoga practices resulting in amelioration of disease symptoms. This has far-reaching implications for the integration of yoga-based practices in the treatment of a broad array of disorders exacerbated by stress.”

 

Streeter CC, Gerbarg PL, Saper RB, Ciraulo DA, Brown RP., “Effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Medical Hypothesis, 2012, in press.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22365651

 

 

Everything Matters: Beyond Meds 

https://beyondmeds.com/

withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug.
 

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