The article summarizes key facts about yoga, including side effects and risks, recent scientific research, and key points to keep in mind if you are considering starting a yoga practice. As a side bonus, there’s a detailed bibliography of additional articles and links to three videos, one of which includes a list of “dos and don’ts.”
Here are some of my key takeaways:
A carefully designed yoga practice has been proven to:
- Decrease back pain
- Increase range of motion
- Decrease heart rate and blood pressure
- Relieve symptoms of both anxiety and depression
- Improve quality of life and reduce stress
- Reduce insomnia
- Improve overall physical fitness, strength and flexibility
- Be safe for healthy individuals when practiced under the guidance of a well trained-instructor
- Studies done thus far have not found yoga to be helpful for asthma. (Side note: I wonder how much pranayama—if any—was included. I’d have to look at the full study to weigh in on this.)
- The benefits of yoga for arthritis are equivocal. (Some studies find it helpful, some do not.) Future research is ongoing to see if yoga has different benefits for patients with rheumatoid arthritis versus osteoarthritis. Scientists are also trying to decide if yoga practice may be more helpful for some joints than others.
Future studies are planned to determine yoga’s effects on a variety of other health conditions, including immune function, diabetes risk, PTSD, and HIV. I can’t wait to see the results!
If you’re at all interested in learning more about yoga, particularly its therapeutic effects, I highly recommend you check out this article. Lots of great information packed into eight very readable pages. Let me know what you think!
Tracy Weber
PS--all three books in my Downward Dog mystery series are now available! Learn more at http://tracyweberauthor.com. Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
It sounds as if yoga has something for nearly everyone!
IT does indeed!
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