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Therapeutic
Yoga
and Stress Reduction
Stress
The
feeling of stress is a combination of our perception of events or situations and
our body’s physiological reaction. Work issues, difficulties, challenges,
obstacles, deadlines, papers, tests, athletic events, performances, family
problems, and tragic events are only a few of the situations that can instigate
stress. Even joyous events like holidays, weddings and new additions to a family
can also exacerbate stress. Natural disasters, world conflicts, tragedies, and
stories of suffering and heartbreak, even those occurring on the other side of
the world, can have wide-ranging impacts, affecting people’s mental health.
One
of the ways in which we respond to stress is through our fight-or-flight
response. This is a combination of the activation of our sympathetic nervous
system and specific hormonal pathways which result in the release of cortisol
from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is one of our primary stress hormones, and is
often used to measure the stress response.
Stress
in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Immediate, or acute stress, can often
be motivating, as it can be activating. We hear stories of people being able to
accomplish physical feats in emergency circumstances because cortisol increases
blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar, as well as increasing mental focus.
Because the stress response increases mental focus, it can often help us meet a
deadline or finish a project. But too much stress, or constant stress with no
respite for the body and mind, can interfere with numerous physical and mental
abilities.
On
a long-term basis, chronic stress can be damaging. Stress hormones including
cortisol decrease the responsiveness of our immune system. They also increase
blood sugar levels as well as blood pressure and heart rate, helpful in a
crisis, but not for long-term health and well being. This is where how we
respond to stress can have a significant impact.
Yoga and Stress
The
practice of Yoga is well-demonstrated to reduce the physical effects of stress
on the body, and has even been found to lower cortisol levels. This effect is
noticeable, and it is one of the primary reasons why people often take up Yoga.
People find that they feel more relaxed after practicing Yoga. The asana,
or physical postures of Yoga, are helpful for reducing muscular tension, which
reduces stress.
We have a tendency to store stress not only in our nervous system, but
distributed throughout the musculature and other tissues of the body; our
digestive system, for example, responds very quickly to stress. Yoga can be a
valuable and effective tool for releasing this stored stress. This can be true
even for post-traumatic stress and recovering from the after-effects of
traumatic events.
Yoga includes not only
the asana or physical postures, but most Yoga classes end with savasana,
or a pose of relaxation. Some classes include a guided relaxation where the
teacher leads students through a progressive relaxation of the body, which
further reduces the experience of stress.
Yoga also includes
meditation and breathing practices (pranayama)
as well as a set of ethical precepts and observances (yamas
and niyamas). Meditation, the ethical
precepts and observances, focused relaxation techniques, and working with the
breath all have beneficial stress-reducing qualities, through improving our
relationships with the various aspects of our inner nature as well as affecting
our psychology and physical body.
Yoga, the Breath and Stress
Working
with the breath can be a particularly effective method for treating a negative
response to stress. When we are experiencing stress, our breathing tends to
become shallow and rapid. Shallow and rapid breath further stimulates the
body’s stress response, and we can become caught up in an ineffective
breathing pattern that only causes more stress. Many yoga techniques emphasize
slowing and deepening the breath, which activates the body’s parasympathetic
system, or relaxation response. Just by changing our pattern of breathing, we
can significantly affect our body’s experience of and response to stress. This
may be one of the most profound lessons from yoga practice.
Selected Research Investigating Yoga and Stress
Studies of Yoga have
demonstrated that Yoga practice has the ability to reduce stress. As mentioned
earlier, Yoga can reduce cortisol levels, a finding which was documented in the
October 2004 issue of the journal, Annals
of Behavioral Science. In the June 2004 issue of the Journal
of Clinical Psychology, researchers found that caregivers for people with
dementia (a very challenging condition) improved physical and emotional
functioning after practicing Yoga. February and August 2005 studies published in
the Journal of Alternative and
Complementary Medicine analyzed the breathing techniques of a specific Yoga
practice, Sudardhan Yoga Kriya, which the authors maintain reduce stress,
including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another
Yoga-based program that has been widely studied in the use of stress reduction
is the mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR), which is taught,
studied and popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Center for Mindfulness in
Medicine, Healthcare and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School.
The mindfulness-based stress reduction program includes guided
instruction in mindfulness meditation practices, yoga and gentle stretching,
inquiry exercises to enhance awareness, individual instruction, group dialogue
and home assignments.
The
effectiveness of the MBSR has been studied in a variety of different scientific
studies both at the
University
of
Massachusetts
as well as other medical centers around the world. Results that they have
reported on their website which are still in the process of being written about
include improved ability to react effectively under high degrees of stress.
Published studies have found that program participants experience lower levels
of stress. Kabat-Zinn and colleagues also found that people who practiced a
meditation technique while receiving treatments for the skin disorder psoriasis
(which is sensitive to stress) had skin that healed faster than people who did
not listen to the meditation tapes during treatment.
For
more information on the benefits cited here and more information on
studies about the health benefits of yoga visit the Yoga Alliance
site at www.yogaalliance.org.
Selected References
Brown,
R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan
Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part
I-neurophysiologic model. Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(1):189-201.
Brown,
R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan
Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part
II: clinical applications and guidelines. Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(4): 711-7.
Kabat-Zinn,
J., Wheeler, E., Light, T., Skillings, A., Scharf, M.S., Cropley, T. G., Hosmer,
D., and Bernhard, J. Hyperlink
"http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/bibliography/abstracts/abstracts9.cfm" Psychosomatic Medicine. 1998; 60: 625-632. Robert-McComb,
J.J., Tacon A; Randolph
P; Caldera Y; A pilot study to
examine the effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction and relaxation
program on levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, and submaximal
exercise responses. Journal of Alternative
and Complementary Medicine; 2004;
10(5), 819-27. Robert-McComb,
J.J., Tacon, A.,
Randolph, P., and Caldera,Y. Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality
of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone
sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychoneuroendrocrinology.
2004; 29(4): 448-74. Waelde, L.C., Thompson, L., and
Gallagher-Thompson, D. A pilot study of a yoga and meditation intervention for
dementia caregiver stress. Journal of
Clinical Psychology. 2004; 60(6): 677-87. West, J.,
Otte, C., Geher, K., Johnson, J., and Mohr, D.C. Effects
of Hatha yoga and African dance on perceived stress, affect, and salivary
cortisol. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
2004; 28(2):114-8.
Center for Mindfulness at the
University
of Massachusetts Medical School Web
site: www.umassmed.edu/cfm.
Note: The International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)
carries an extensive set of Yoga and Health Bibliographies, including
citations for ongoing research, on their web site. www.iayt.org
Click
on the following helpful FYB Horizon links:
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