Benefits Of Yoga

Emotional regulation and mental health: Yoga has been proven to be a useful treatment for all kinds of mental health disorders, from depression and anxiety to ADHD and OCD to addictive disorders like alcohol use disorder. First-line treatment for mental health disorders often consists of talk therapy. Talk therapy is a way for us to use our minds to get control over what is happening in our bodies. We use our higher functions, like our capacities for language and thinking, to attempt to get control over the visceral feelings that are generated in the very deep limbic and subcortical structures in the brain. The potential limitation with talk therapy is it is very difficult to control the mind by using the mind.

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Yoga is a very different approach: we start by gaining control over our bodies and our breathing, which eventually allows us to control our thoughts from the bottom-up. This bottom-up approach is a practical way to change maladaptive patterns of thought and behavior.

 

Yoga is proven to improve our interoception, which is our awareness over the internal states of the body. Disturbances in interoception are a major feature of many mental disorders. Yoga allows us to develop a greater connection between our minds and our bodies, which is reflected in brain imaging studies that show increases in grey matter density of the insular cortex associated with yoga practice. Put simply, yoga is a science-backed practice into sensing into what is happening in the body and brain, which is the precursor to control over the body, thoughts, and behavior.

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Improving our awareness of our internal states also improves our ability to regulate our emotional states. Emotional dysregulation is prominent across many common psychiatric disorders. One of the most common symptoms across psychiatric disorders is emotional dysregulation.

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Yoga practice is shown in the medical literature to improve emotional regulation skills. Yoga calls for continuous awareness of how the body is positioned in space, our breathing patterns, and the emotional states that come up while we practice. We become mindful of our emotional states, like those that lead to depression, addictive behaviors, and anxiety, and develop the ability to stay grounded in our yoga posture, breathing pattern, or meditation practice despite the uncomfortable emotions and thoughts that might arise. This leads to brain changes that are associated with improved mental health outcomes.

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Stress reduction: One of the most well-documented benefits of yoga practice is a reduction in stress. In addition to decreases in anxiety and depression, yoga leads to decreases in stress and insomnia. Consistent yoga practice is known to lead to reductions in cortisol levels, which is the biomarker most often associated with the detrimental effects of chronic stress. High levels of cortisol are also associated with clinical depression.

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The yogic breathing exercises that are an important feature of my group classes and yoga coaching are associated with improvements in heart rate variability and the functioning of the vagus nerve. Yoga practice leads to increased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the branch of the nervous system that is associated with resting, digesting, and healing. Increases in the activation and sensitivity of the rest-and-digest system lead to profound decreases in stress.

 

Yoga practice is also associated with increases in the activity of the GABA system. The GABA system is the system that is targeted in pharmacological treatments of anxiety disorders; benzodiazepines like xanax and valium also increase the activity of the GABA system. Yoga does this naturally, which makes it invaluable in the reduction of stress, anxiety, and the negative effects associated with them. Yoga gives you all the benefits of a 'chill pill' with none of the drawbacks.

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Lymphatic/immune system: The lymphatic system is part of the immune system; its’ most relevant job is to allow for the circulation of lymphatic fluid that allows the body to get rid of waste and transport nutrients alongside the circulatory system. The lymphatic fluid also allows the cellular “workhorses” of the immune system to be transported so that they can protect and heal us. Unlike the circulatory system, the lymphatic system does not have a pump to ensure that lymphatic fluid is circulating enough to ensure optimal health.

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The dynamic movements, stretches, twists, and inversions associated with a properly-sequenced therapeutic yoga practice allow for the circulation of lymphatic fluid, which leads to improved immune system function. Yoga enhances the ability of the lymphatic system to get rid of waste and transport nutrients. Yoga is also known to downregulate inflammatory biomarkers and upregulate anti-inflammatory biomarkers, which makes it useful in the complementary treatment – and prevention of – inflammation-related disorders and diseases.

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These decreases in inflammation and increases in lymphatic fluid circulation are another way that yoga improves mental health outcomes as well, because we now know that inflammation is directly related to depression and other mental health conditions. Yoga is also a great adjunct to traditional treatment as patients with high inflammation do not respond as well to antidepressant therapies as those that do not have high inflammation. Yoga’s curbing of inflammation and its’ positive effects on the lymphatic system make it a valuable complementary and holistic therapy.

 

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Physical strength, balance, mobility: Although yoga has benefits that go far beyond those of a physical workout, it also improves physical strength, balance, and mobility, which can aid longevity and improve quality of life. Increases in physical mobility show protective effects against the brain changes that usually occur with aging in the areas of the brain that are associated with attention, task completion, and memory. Regular exercise is also known to be important in the preservation of general cognitive functioning; therefore yoga can help to prevent dementia.

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I utilize a lot of balance training in my physical yoga sessions; balance training can reduce fear of falling in older adults, improve self-efficacy, and improve general physical function. Balance training can also improve learning through increases in the levels of dopamine and other neurotransmitters that are crucial to the learning process. Balance training can also significantly improve memory and spatial cognition, according to the medical literature. Our therapeutic yoga sessions act as ideal adjuncts to the pursuit of any learning-related goals; yogic practices are now understood to bring about brain states that allow for maximal neuroplasticity and therefore learning.

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In other words, yoga primes the brain to be able to change itself in response to experience, which explains why it can be so transformative in the lives of so many people: it actually preps the entire nervous system for the changes that have the potential to become complete physical and mental transformation.

 

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Cardiovascular health: Yoga leads to an inhibition the body's sympathetic nervous system, which is commonly known as the 'fight-or-flight' system. This reduces negative responses to stressful stimuli. Yogic practices also inhibit the brain circuits responsible for fear, aggressiveness, and rage, while also stimulating the rewarding pleasure centers in the median forebrain and other areas, which can lead to states of bliss and pleasure. This results in lower anxiety, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and cardiac output in students practicing yoga and meditation.

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The therapeutic style of yoga that we use for our yoga coaching clients is ideal for improving baroreflex sensitivity, which leads to lower blood pressure and resting heart rate. Therapeutic yoga also leads to increased activity in the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which means we can drop into states of rest-and-digest and healing more quickly.

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Yoga is also known to improve heart rate variability, which is the measurement of the variation in the amount of time between heart beats. High heart rate variability is good, because that means our heart is able to quicken its’ pace when we need to be energized and quickly slow itself down when we are safe and able to relax. By contrast, low heart rate variability, which means a less adaptable heart, is associated with higher rates of all-cause mortality.

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Yoga practice leads to higher heart rate variability, which is associated with proper emotional regulation, decision making, and attentional skills. Therapeutic yoga also tones the vagus nerve, which is associated with improvements in the function of blood vessels, glandular activity in the lungs, liver, digestive tract, and immune system in addition to further improvements in heart health.

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Yoga also improves blood pressure, respiratory rate, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, total cholesterol, triglycerides, hbA1c, and insulin resistance. This makes yoga an excellent intervention in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.