Three Amazing Benefits of Yoga

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Yoga can be a fun and calming practice, but you may wonder if there’s more to it than gaining a sense of flexibility and relaxation. Are there any other benefits to continue justifying an investment of time? While ancient, yoga luckily is backed by modern studies with optimistic conclusions. The following are some of the many benefits discovered by researchers:

Easing tension headaches

With tension headache being one of the most common forms of headaches, stress being the usual cause, and yoga being a known stress-reliver, researchers wanted to see if yoga could help with tension headaches. For participants, they gathered 30 patients from an outpatient department in a hospital who met the diagnosis criteria of the International Headache Society-II. Following this, the participants’ headache intensities were measured through the Visual Pain Analogue Scale. Afterward they were taught yoga for 30 minutes and were asked to practice this for a month. A secondary set of scores were measured during a follow up visit to the hospital after the month of yoga therapy was done. The results based on the scoring showed a significant improvement in yoga helping to decrease tension headaches.[1]

Easing sleeping problems

Considering the problematic side effects with treating insomnia within older populations through pharmacological means, researchers were curious if yoga could act as an alternative to providing a good night’s rest. Taking 129 participants from a home for the aged, the researchers split the participants into three groups: 1.) Yoga, 2.) Ayurveda (herbal), and 3.) Wait-List (no intervention). Afterward, the participants were given self-assessments in relation to their sleep, followed by three and six months of the interventions. The results showed that compared to the Ayurveda and wait-list groups, the yoga group, after intervention, fell asleep faster, slept longer, and felt more rested after sleeping.[2]

Easing osteoarthritis-related pain

In helping to ease symptoms caused by issues within the musculoskeletal system, doctors have traditionally used techniques from yoga. Noting this, and seeking whether or not this traditional method is justified, researchers gathered together patients willing to participate. Those selected were suffering from osteoarthritis, specifically of the hands. Splitting them into two groups, some were given no therapy, while the rest were overseen by a yoga instructor once a week for eight weeks. To assess any differences between the groups, to see if there were noticeable effects from yoga, the participants were to be evaluated through a questionnaire known as the Stanford Hand Assessment. Concluding the research, it was found in the assessment results that the yoga group felt a lot better in regard to pain caused by their affliction.[3]

References:

1. Menon, B. Satyanand, V., and Karishma, P.H. (2013). Effects of yoga on tension headache. Journal of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, 2(3): 167-170

Manjunath, N.K., Telles, S. (2005). Influence of Yoga and Ayurveda on self-rated sleep in a geriatric population. Indian J Med Res., 121(5): 683-90.

3. Garfinkel MS, Schumacher HR Jr, Husain A, Levy M, Reshetar RA. (1994). Evaluation of a yoga based regimen for treatment of osteoarthritis of the hands. The Journal of Rheumatology, 21(12): 2341-2343.

 Article by: Jonathan A. Watson