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Savannah Watson

Engl 101*90

Prof. Hamelman

7 December 2016

Yoga a Day Keeps the Doctors Away

The art of yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in the Eastern world as a way to

bridge the body and mind and to promote spiritual discipline. In recent years, yoga has moved

Westward, gaining popularity in the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as other

Western countries. Yoga provides a number of physical health benefits, including reducing body

pains, reducing symptoms of asthma, and reducing cancer symptoms, in addition to many others.

And while the physical benefits of yoga are wide-ranging, so are the mental health benefits:

relieving the symptoms of serious disorders including anxiety and depression, among other

disorders. Because of yoga’s extensive advantages, yoga should be incorporated into the lives of

all able people, especially those with anxiety and other mental disorders.

Like any form of physical exercise, yoga aids in making and keeping a body healthy.

Different poses and breathing exercises provide various benefits to the body and mind. For

example, the well-known “downward dog” — where the person places his or her hands and feet

flat on the ground and push his or her buttocks up— strengthens the arms and legs, creates blood

flow, and calms and energizes the body and mind. Similarly, a breathing exercise called Nadi

Shodhana, or Alternate Nostril Breathing— in which one closes the left nostril with his or her

thumb and breaths in, then pinches the other nostril closed with his or her index finger and
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releases the right nostril and exhales — is believed to balance and open both the left and right

side of the brain.

Several studies have been performed to show the effectiveness of yoga on health — many

of which have found yoga to impact different diseases, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes,

lipid profile, and COPD. Dr. Davendra Kumar Taneja, part of the Department of Community

Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College in India, explains how just one hour of yoga every

day decreased body weight, helped control blood pressure, and decreased “fasting as well as

postprandial [post-meal] blood glucose levels and acetylated hemoglobin” (69). Because yoga

increases lung ability, Dr. Taneja also found that yoga poses, breathing exercises, and meditation

“improved several measures of pulmonary function in subjects having mild to moderate

bronchial asthma” as well as decreased exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (69). As yoga is a

form of exercise, yoga has also been shown effective in lowering cholesterol and improving

heart conditions as “yoga exercise increases regression and [slows] progression of

atherosclerosis [plaque buildup] in patients with severe coronary artery disease” (Taneja 69).

Studies have shown the practice of yoga to be effective against asthma, rheumatoid arthritis,

migraines, musculoskeletal disorders, and symptoms related to cancer (Yoshihara 1). The quality

of sleep and insomnia were also shown to improve among yoga practitioners.

Yoga has proved to be advantageous in the reduction of not only physical but emotional

and mental symptoms as well. Yoga has been shown in a number of studies to positively impact

symptoms of anxiety, mental disturbance, anger and hostility, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,

and the ability to regulate emotions. Kazufumi Yoshihara, part of the Department of

Psychosomatic Medicine at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, found through his study that

people who practice yoga long-term, rather than those who do not, have lower stress and are in a
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better mental state (1). Yoshihara’s study found that “the long-term yoga group showed a lower

total mood disturbance, tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, and fatigue score” (3). Another area of

scientific research is in determining the effectiveness of yoga against PTSD symptoms. One such

study was performed by Jennifer M. Johnston, part of the Department of Psychiatry at Boston

University Medical Center, found yoga to be effective against PTSD in current and veteran

military personnel, stating that the studies’ participants experienced a lowered PTSD score (559).

“These score changes were both clinically and statistically significant, demonstrating that yoga is

potentially an effective treatment for PTSD symptoms in military personnel and veterans”

(Johnston 559). Yoga is also thought to be able to improve emotional regulations and “…may

help foster healthier psychological responses, indicating its potential as an emotion regulation

strategy” (Menezes 82). Carolina B. Menezes, part of the Department of Psychology at the

Universidade Federal de Pelotas [Federal University of Pelotas] in Pelotas, Brazil, expressed that

“yoga may help promote more positive and adaptive psychological functioning, particularly

fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, and improving quality of life” (93).

Menezes’s study created a figure— featured at the top of the next page —which shows what the

researchers believed to be the connection between yoga, bodily responses, and emotional

regulation.
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In a more practical, real-world example of the influence of yoga on mental well-being, a

study was conducted by Pamela Re, an educator of Adolescent Mental Health at Northwest

Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, to determine the effect of yoga on patients in

an adolescent psychiatric hospital. Yoga is a low-risk, low-cost way to help with emotional

regulation, which allows it to be easily incorporated into a psychiatric hospital. The study found

that yoga significantly improved the pulse and the “self-reported distress ratings” (175) of the

patients, proving yoga to be a powerful and valuable tool in emotional wellness and regulation in

psychologically “distressed” adolescences between twelve and eighteen years of age. In her

study, Re concluded that “yoga has the potential to help adolescents … learn to soothe

themselves, to regulate their emotions, and to find relief from emotional distress” (175), which

are important skills that many people who suffer from mental disorders tend to lack, even when

taking medication to aid them. Soothing, regulating, and relieving emotions are some of the most
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important skills needed for any person to have, whether suffering from psychological disorders

or not, in order to lead a more stable life.

While yoga has proven effective against diseases and disorders in multiple studies, more

research needs to be conducted. While the practice of yoga is not new, it is a relatively new form

of treatment in the Western medical world; and just as any other type of new treatment, it must

undergo more testing to determine how truly effective it is. However, since yoga is a low-risk

and low-cost treatment, there is little in the way of testing; yoga does not pose ethical or moral

questions, nor does it cost extreme amounts of money to incorporate into medical facilities. The

current research is preliminary, paving the way for future experimentation. Although more

research is needed, the research that has been done up until this point has produced positive

results. Another fact to be mindful of is that even though yoga is showing promising results in

helping people to regulate emotions and deal with symptoms of mental and physical disorders,

yoga alone may not be an absolute cure, just as medicine is not always a be-all-end-all answer to

diseases and disorders. Yoga may need to be paired with medication to produce even better

results than yoga, alone, has produced. Although yoga must be studied more and may not be the

absolute answer, yoga has shown that it is a powerful tool against physical symptoms and

diseases, as well as mental symptoms and disorders. Yoga aims to connect the body and mind,

and by doing so, both areas benefit from the practice of yoga.
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Works Cited

Johnston, Jennifer M., et al. "Yoga For Military Service Personnel With PTSD: A Single Arm

Study." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy 7.6 (2015): 555-

562. PsycARTICLES. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

Kumar Taneja, Davendra. "Yoga And Health." Indian Journal Of Community Medicine 39.2

(2014): 68-72. CINAHL Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.

Menezes, Carolina B., et al. "Yoga And Emotion Regulation: A Review Of Primary

Psychological Outcomes And Their Physiological Correlates." Psychology &

Neuroscience 8.1 (2015): 82-101. PsycARTICLES. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.

Re, Pamela, et al. "Effects Of Yoga On Patients In An Adolescent Mental Health Hospital And

The Relationship Between Those Effects And The Patients' Sensory‐Processing

Patterns." Journal Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 27.4 (2014): 175-

182. PsycINFO. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.

Yoshihara, Kazufumi, et al. "Profile Of Mood States And Stress-Related Biochemical Indices In

Long-Term Yoga Practitioners." Biopsychosocial Medicine 5.1 (2011): 6-13. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.