New health benefits of yoga

Yoga is recognized as a health therapy and is becoming increasingly popular. However, not much research has focused on the relationship between yoga practice and cognition. Some recent studies have shown that yoga practitioners have significant improvements in brain function.

Cognitive functioning refers to a person’s mental processes, including memory, attention, language ability, learning, problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. Through a study comparing yoga and aerobic exercise subjects, scientists found that aerobic exercisers had no significant differences compared to before, while yoga practitioners had significant improvements in cognitive functioning.

Explaining this, scientists say that yoga exercises, especially breathing and meditation exercises, have the effect of calming the mind and body, keeping scattered thoughts focused deep within the body, mastering your posture and breathing, eliminating the negative effects of stress, thereby leading to better cognitive ability. On the one hand, yoga exercises have the effect of improving physical health, controlling anxiety and stress, helping the spirit to be more refreshed.

In another study, a team of researchers from MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center concluded that yoga and meditation exercises that put the body in a state of deep relaxation can positively influence genes that respond to stress.

Pranayama - breathing control exercises that help control blood pressure.

Yoga has a positive effect on patients with severe depression

In a study published in the journal Clinical Psychiatry, researchers reported that eight weeks of Sudarshan Kriya yoga improved symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who had not responded to antidepressants. While antidepressants often have side effects that cause patients to stop taking them or take them without response, Sudarshan Kriya yoga exercises were effective. This is truly a low-cost, non-pharmacological treatment for depression that can help patients who have not responded to antidepressants.

Sudarshan Kriya yoga is a meditation technique that focuses on breathing exercises, with the aim of bringing the mind into a state of deep tranquility. It is easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere.

Yoga helps regulate blood pressure

Yoga may help people with high blood pressure - a research team from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that yoga may have a beneficial effect on people with high blood pressure by lowering their blood pressure.

In another study presented at the 68th Annual Conference of the Cardiological Society of India (CSI), yoga had surprising health benefits for patients with prehypertension. Prehypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120-139mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure of 80-90mmHg. Researchers at Sir Gangaram Hospital in Delhi (India) examined the effects of Hatha yoga on the blood pressure of 60 patients with prehypertension.

These patients performed yoga exercises that included asanas and breathing exercises called Pranayama. The yoga exercises were performed for 1 hour every day for 3 months. Compared to the control group that only made lifestyle changes, the yoga group had good 24-hour blood pressure control, while the control group had no significant change in lowering blood pressure.

For researchers, this effect of lowering blood pressure is very meaningful, because it significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Researchers recommend that patients practice Hatha yoga (a combination of asana, pranayama and meditation) for 1 hour daily. It can prevent the development of hypertension and bring a sense of happiness to practitioners.

Yoga therapy has good therapeutic effects for people with spinal pain.

Yoga is effective in treating back pain

According to a report published in the journal Spine, a yoga intervention program has been shown to be effective in treating low back pain in patient groups in the UK. Researchers compared a 12-week specially developed yoga intervention program in a patient group with usual care by a general practitioner in another patient group. The results showed that yoga was effective in reducing cervical spine pain and low back pain in patients. One of the effective exercises for back pain is Yoga Therapy.

Yoga reduces the risk of atrial fibrillation

People who practice yoga regularly and long-term have a significantly lower risk of atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm disorder). Atrial fibrillation is a major cause of stroke. Researchers from the University of Kansas Hospital found that yoga not only reduced the risk of atrial fibrillation, but also improved anxiety and depressive symptoms in participants who practiced yoga regularly. “These findings are important because current treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation include invasive procedures or medications with undesirable side effects,” said study leader Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, PhD. Therefore, practicing yoga daily is considered a simple yet effective treatment method.

According to SK&DS