Health and Yoga: Benefits of Yoga Related to Human Health

About a year ago this month I injured my back working out at my local gym. My injury was just a pinched nerve in my lower back so it was nothing serious or to be worried about in the long term. The problem I was faced with was that after I healed, which took a couple of months with no exercise, I couldn’t get motivated to go back to he gym and continue working out. After two months of doing nothing the last thing I wanted to do was start all over again with my workouts and it was frustrating when I would try. I then began trying different home workouts such as insanity, but at home there are so many excuses not to workout so this experiment didn’t last long. By this time it was the middle of winter and I had began to notice some odd things with my health and overall mental well-being. I gained about ten pounds, I felt tired all the time, my body ached, and my mood was dull. One day I had been talking with one of my friends about my recent observations of my health and told him that I thought the reason for my decline in health was that I wasn’t getting any physical exercise. His response was, “try yoga.” He didn’t say anything else to me and I started to fire off excuses why I didn’t want to. His wife is a yoga instructor in my home town and when I came back for spring break he gave me a weeks worth of free passes to try it out. After that week I felt as if my whole perspective was changed about Yoga. I then enrolled in the class here at Eastern and my health and well-being have greatly improved. This short story is what sparked my interest in yoga and its benefits to health.
Human beings are made up of three components—body, mind and soul corresponding these there are three needs—health, knowledge and inner peace. Health is physical need, knowledge is our psychological needs and inner peace is spiritual need when all three are present then there is harmony. Yoga gives us relief from countless ailments at the physical level. The practice of the postures (asans) strengthens the body and creates a feeling of well-being. From the psychological viewpoint, yoga sharpens the intellect and aid in concentration; it steadies the emotions and encourages a caring for others. The practice of breathing techniques (pranayam) calms the mind. In the realm of the spiritual yoga brings awareness and the ability to be still. Through meditation inner peace is experienced. Thus, yoga is a practical philosophy involving every aspect of a person’s being. It teaches the evolution of the individual by the development of self-discipline and self awareness. Anyone irrespective of age, health circumstances of life and religion can practice yoga. Yoga helps to discipline our sense of power with the power of our own. If we peep into the benefits of yoga, they are numerous. It improve physical fitness, stress, controls general well being, mental clarity and greater self-understanding. People of all ages can do yoga and it can also be adapted for people with disabilities or special needs. The asanas enhance muscle strength, coordination, flexibility and can help to keep our body fit control cholesterol level, reduce weight, normalizes blood pressure and improves cardiovascular performance.
First, what is stress and how is it affecting individual health in today’s world? Psychologists have been studying stress and its impact on psychological and physical health for decades. Stress is a negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes that are directed either toward altering the stressful event or accommodating to its effects (Taylor, S. E. 2012). In modern society we are not faced with the same stress as our ancestors, there are no predators trying to harm us. Instead we are faced with stress such as money, education, or social stressors. Most of these stresses are brought on by our appraisal systems; its all how we as individuals want to perceive something that makes it stressful. This makes stress a tricky issue to try and improve because most of us have no choice but to stress. With that said we are also not helpless, we can choose intervention techniques to help us better cope with these stresses, research suggests that there are many ways we can reduce stress in our lives. One way is to incorporate our mind, body, and spirit through Yoga.
A recent study done by Anderzén-Carlsson, A., Lundholm, U. P., Köhn, M., & Westerdahl, E. (2014) can help us better understand how Yoga helps to reduce stress. The participants described medical yoga as a way of alleviating suffering from their primary stress related symptoms as well as their other symptoms and lack of well-being. It provided the participants with a tool for dealing with their stress and current situation on a practical level. It also led to greater self-awareness and self-esteem, which in turn had an implicit impact on their life world. High self-esteem has been reported to help reduce stress in individuals; it gives them the confidence to deal with the different things that life throws at them (Taylor, S. E. 2012). Also the present findings suggest that long-term yoga training can reduce the scores related to mental health indicators such as self-rated anxiety, anger, and fatigue (Yoshihara, K., Hiramoto, T., Sudo, N., & Kubo, C. 2011).
Globalization exposes children and young people all over the world to various new standards and options. Now children not only have new resources in their lives, but are also expected to perform well. Different institutions in children and adolescents’ lives, such as family, school, and the media, constantly provide stimulation as well as expectations. A recent study by Hagen, I., & Nayar, U. S. (2014) suggests that Yoga can help foster motivation, cultivate internal locus of control, improve sleep, and generally encourage healthy and balanced living. Yoga may also aid in shifting self-awareness inward to children’s own cues and emotions, and thus, counteract negative social and cultural influences, including the current media pressure to be always online and available. This article suggests that Yoga is not only beneficial to adults but can also be a key ingredient helping young adults cope with their stressors as well. As a young adult myself I know how demanding life can be at times and the more tools we have to help the better.
In the past few decades there has been an increased focus on Cancer. In the United States cancer is the second largest cause of death sitting behind Heart Disease. Cancer is a set of more than 100 diseases that have several factors in common. All cancers result from a dysfunction in DNA—that part of the cellular programming that controls cell growth and reproduction. The most effective forms of treatment for cancer are medicinal and since 1993 cancer deaths have slowly been decreasing due to improved treatments. Although survivor rates have increased once someone has beaten cancer they are not done healing. Cancer takes a toll on many different parts of the body causing many different health problems. Not only does the disease hurt the body but treatments such as chemo-therapy also cause physical problems. The total sum of cancer with treatment, disease, financial is draining. It is hard for individuals to get back on track after dealing with cancer and get back to well-being. For example, a study was done on a group of women who were breast cancer survivors. As a treatment they were asked to participate in yoga classes for a period of time (Van Puymbroeck, M., Burk, B. N., Shinew, K. J., Cronan Kuhlenschmidt, M., & Schmid, A. A. 2013). The physical healing that yoga provided was important to the participants. The women provided examples of how participation in yoga gave them strength and flexibility post surgery. Yoga also gave them the opportunity to rediscover their physical abilities and allowed their chest to open and heal. Yoga also provided the women with feelings of mental toughness. They mentioned stress relief as a benefit of participation in yoga, and noted that it reduced both post treatment and daily stress. Socially, participating in yoga created a community for the women. They found that sharing their stories with other breast cancer survivors had healing benefits. It increased their desire for future participation in other classes with cancer survivors and also those who may have not had personal experience with cancer. All of these benefits that the women described are usually common problems for cancer survivors and yoga seems to show a positive experience that all cancer survivors could enjoy.

References
Anderzén-Carlsson, A., Lundholm, U. P., Köhn, M., & Westerdahl, E. (2014). Medical yoga: Another way of being in the world—A phenomenological study from the perspective of persons suffering from stress-related symptoms. International Journal Of Qualitative Studies On Health And Well-Being.
Hagen, I., & Nayar, U. S. (2014). Yoga for children and young people’s mental health and well-being: Research review and reflections on the mental health potentials of yoga. Frontiers In Psychiatry.
Panesar, N., & Valachova, I. (2011). Yoga and mental health. Australasian Psychiatry, 19(6), 538-539.
Patel, N. K., Newstead, A. H., & Ferrer, R. L. (2012). The effects of yoga on physical functioning and health related quality of life in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine, 18(10), 902-917.
Taylor, S. E. (2012). Health psychology (8th ed.). New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill.
Van Puymbroeck, M., Burk, B. N., Shinew, K. J., Cronan Kuhlenschmidt, M., & Schmid, A. A. (2013). Perceived health benefits from yoga among breast cancer survivors. American Journal Of Health Promotion, 27(5), 308-315.
Yoshihara, K., Hiramoto, T., Sudo, N., & Kubo, C. (2011). Profile of mood states and stress-related biochemical indices in long-term yoga practitioners. Biopsychosocial Medicine.