Enhance Your Health With Yoga

Yoga, which means "union," from the Sanskrit word yukti, is an ancient system of practices. Developed in India, yoga aimed at integrating mind, body, and spirit to enhance health and well-being. Its principles were first set down systematically by Patanjali in the second century B.C. in the Yoga Sutras.

There are many different forms of yoga. In its original form, it was part of a larger spiritual and philosophical system, but yoga has also proven beneficial to millions of practitioners who have not been grounded in the original traditions and meanings of yoga.

Hatha yoga is the most widely known form of yoga in the West, and the most closely allied with Ayurvedic medicine. It includes three practices that have been found highly beneficial for health. They are:

1. Asanas: Yoga asanas involve a variety of physical postures and exercises. They help to align the spine and head, improve blood flow, induce a state of relaxation, energize glands and organs, and improve well-being. Some asanas have been used to treat specific medical conditions. In Ayurvedic practice, specific asanas have traditionally been prescribed to rebalance the doshas by stimulating the organs associated with the prevailing dosha.

2. Pranayama: Pranayama is the control of breath, from the Sanskrit prana, or life energy, and ayam, or control. Prana is the life force, and is roughly equivalent to such concepts as qi or chi in traditional Chinese medicine, or "vital force" in homeopathy. Yoga teaches that interruption of the flow of prana by such factors as stress, toxins, or improper diet can have a
harmful effect on physical, mental, and spiritual health. Pranayama breathing exercises are intended to remove such blockages. Pranayama exercises often emphasize slow, deep abdominal breathing.

3. Meditation: Dhyana, or meditation, is the third aspect of classical yoga, Meditative practices have been demonstrated to induce a relaxed state in the autonomic nervous system, which has a beneficial effect on other systems, including the immune system.

Yoga has proven beneficial in treating a variety of medical conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, breathing problems, asthma, musculoskeletal problems, stress-related illnesses, and mood disorders. Yoga is also helpful in the management of pain, for improving respiratory endurance and efficiency of breathing, for muscle strength, and for motor control. It helps prevent musculoskeletal problems and is beneficial for people with arthritis and those recovering from bone fractures.

Yoga programs have shown the potential for helping to reduce heart disease by influencing such risk factors as blood pressure, anxiety, and negative reaction to stress. Yoga is an essential component of the cardiovascular program to manage and reverse heart disease.

A 1973 classic study by London cardiologist Dr. Chandra Patel applied yoga and biofeedback as a combined relaxation therapy. Five of twenty patients with high blood pressure were able to stop using their anti hypertensive drugs, and seven others were able to reduce their dosage by 33 to 60%.

According to an Indian study done in 1993, forty male physical education teachers who were already very fit practiced yoga daily for three months, and showed a significant reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and body weight, with decreased autonomic or involuntary arousal.

A 1994 study of osteoarthritis patients found that after eight weeks of yoga training, pain, tenderness, and range of motion were improved.

In a controlled study of healthy female volunteers done in 1994 in Germany, one group of women practiced yoga while the group sat and read. There was significant improvement among the yoga group in psychological parameters, such as a higher score in life satisfaction, with a decline in excitability, aggressiveness, and psychosomatic complaints. Heart rate fell during the reading activity in the control group, but rose at follow-up. Among the yoga practitioners, heart rate remained low.

Because yoga lacks the risks of high-impact aerobic activities, research should be conducted to determine if yoga might be beneficial for people who are reluctant to engage in routine exercise, such as patients with heart disease and arthritis. Yoga may be particularly beneficial for older adults or individuals with disabilities. Beyond their physical and mental benefits, the practices of asanas, pranayama, and meditation have traditionally been believed to contribute to an integration of mind, body, and spirit.