Written By Sean M. Anderson
Yoga has been in existence for thousands of years. That is longer than any other form of exercise in use today. It is also safe to say that the medical field has improved since then. Yoga has consistently been helping people overcome and deal with many types of illnesses as well as psychological issues. Although, the practice of Yoga cannot be said to “Heal” people of their afflictions, there are millions who would disagree. Like people who have had terminal illnesses go into remission, diabetics going “off the needle”, and many other near miraculous admissions from people who claim that they started feeling and getting better after they began practicing Yoga. The same goes for those who have tried every aerobics class they could find and all of those “number one on the best seller list,” diets and never succeeded in attaining their fitness and weight loss goals. Until, they started Yoga. Diligently practicing Yoga, pranayama (breathing), and meditation.
Medical science has known for many years that there is a definite connection between body and mind. We know that stress can manifest itself into physical symptoms such as, migraine headaches, ulcers, acid reflux, high blood pressure, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. These are just a few of the many physical ailments stress causes. So, it’s safe to say that if our minds can cause ailments it can also heal these and many other ailments. There is scientific evidence showing that meditation alone can affect the immune system and strengthen it to fight infection, as well as lessen the immune system to treat autoimmune disorders, such as skin disorders and HIV/AIDS. People who suffer from depression get sick more often than those with a positive happier outlook on life. Doctors have been prescribing relaxation techniques for years to help patients cope with stress related ailments, even in the case of muscle soreness and fatigue. I believe this is the reason why Yoga is so effective in the treatment of stress related illness and depression. The word Yoga means “Unite”, to bring together body and mind.
As mentioned previously, Yoga has helped many people achieve their fitness goals weather it be fat loss, building lean tissue or muscle mass, and used as a way to improve overall wellness. Yoga actually balances the body and it’s many systems and functions like the, circulatory, skeletal, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, and all other systems and functions of the human body. Yoga normalizes your body by getting it to perform all of its duties the way they were meant to be performed. Due to toxins in our environment, the air we breathe, the foods we eat, and even the things we do to ourselves like smoking, drinking, poor diet, and even modern physical exercise. All of these toxins need a place to go. The body does not recognize most of these chemicals so they get pushed aside and begin to build up. Lactic acid from weight training collects in the muscle tissue and never gets expelled. That creates soar, stiff, muscles, also causes fatigue, dulls cognitive abilities, and makes concentrating difficult.
Through the practice of Yoga the body bends, twists, stretches, and hold positions (asana). By having your body perform in this way it causes the organs to move and rub against each other and releases the toxins and dead blood that get stuck in between them. This gives us the opportunity to expel these toxins from our bodies and start enjoying the rewards of Yoga having a healthy clean body. At first Yoga will feel similar to other training routines you’ve tried. But stick with it and in a couple weeks your body will adjust to the routines, your body begins to expel the toxins on a regular basis making you feel years younger. You will be able to move like you did decades before. We all at one time or another get to a point where dropping something like a pencil becomes an “Oh, no” situation where you then have to bend over to pick it up. You think to yourself “My knees, back, legs are going to hurt”, and you even feel that your breathing is interrupted. Then we justify these physical feelings by saying to ourselves “I’m getting old.” Well, that is just not true. What is true is that like most people we ride our bodies hard and over the years those toxins discussed earlier start to get to the point where they are affecting you physically and mentally. Look at kids, they are like rubber bands and move in ways we barely remember. Yes, partly because they are young, but mostly because they do not have the amount of toxin buildup that we, as adults have. For example when a child breathes you can see their stomachs expand, like they should. Due to social pressures like needing to be thin we hold our bellies in and shallow breathe; stress also causes us to shallow breath. This shallow breathing means we are only using the top half of our lungs, if we’re lucky.
Of all things our bodies need oxygen is the only thing we constantly need. We could probably go a few minutes with practice without it, but not for long. When we take in air we oxygenate the blood. This blood can then go to the brain and muscle tissue and our body’s organs. This oxygen can heal damaged tissue therefore, we recover from injury faster, it also boosts our immune system so we can fight off infection and recover from illnesses quicker. When we shallow breath we deny oxygen to our blood. This increases the ph, making our blood more alkaline. When this happens our red blood cells hold onto the oxygen even tighter. Then we starve our bodies of oxygen. It at this point that toxins build up and bone, muscle, organs, and tissues, even our brain matter begins to age faster than it should and over time it breaks down, decays causing illness, fatigue, and makes us prone to injury. We also lose the elasticity in the muscles, ligaments, even our skin, creating wrinkles. The bones lose flexibility and are more likely to suffer breaks instead of just bruising from a fall. This is why Yogins practice Pranayama, (proper breathing) it is not just a physical fitness routine. Practicing Yoga requires you to learn how to breathe properly. Breathing eliminates toxins from our bodies at an amazing 70% ratio. We also eliminate toxins by urinating and bowel movements, but at only a surprising 30%.
Yoga has also been scientifically to aid in the recovery of diabetes, heart trouble, asthma, pain, PMS, menopausal disorders, obesity, cancer, drug and alcohol addictions, back problems. Yoga also can help, with digestive disorders, lowers the need for medications, fosters healing relationships, is great for alleviating anger and emotional problems, and many more, too many to be listed here. Yoga is more than just another exercise, although it has also been proven to reduce body fat and fat-folds under the arms and on the backs of the arms as well. Through the practice of Yoga the hormone Cortisol is reduced. Cortisol is a stress-hormone that promotes the increase of belly fat. Numerous studies have shown that Yoga’s ability to lower the levels of blood fats and LDL, the bad cholesterol and triglycerides which are shown to cause heart attacks and pancreatitis. It can also increase the good cholesterol, HDL. The weight loss and conditioning of regular Yoga practice tends to drop triglyceride levels and boost the HDL, at high levels this can protect against heart attack acting as a fat scavenger in the blood stream.
As said earlier Yoga helps foster healing relationships. Just like your relationship with your doctor, a good relationship with your Yoga instructor can be a strong therapeutic benefit. Yoga teachers, some times and at the student’s request and permission will often have to physically adjust a student’s posture, or asana. So that they can gain the most benefit from it. Doctors call this “ The laying on of hands” which with today’s technology and “Magic Pill” craze has been replaced by “ The laying on of drugs”. This is a quote from Timothy McCall M.D. He is totally correct you cannot watch 10 minutes of T.V. without seeing a few advertisements for a drug that is supposed to help an ailment or affliction that we all just “dealt with” years ago. I personally tend to stay away from drugs that claim to help with one issue but could possibly cause a multitude of other horrible side-effects, including death. Yoga is truly an all-natural way to live and by doing so you will not only improve physically but mentally.
Yoga benefits our nervous system through toning and fine-tuning it so that it can effectively deal with the stresses of everyday living. With a fine tuned nervous system you will be able to see a stressful event before it comes to fruition and you end up suffering the ill effects. Having this foresight makes it possible for us to make better decisions in how we live and avoid the situations that bring us unhealthy stress. Some stress is healthy and very important. It is important in that it keeps us on our toes, keeps us sharp so that we can get things done and perform our duties at work and in our personal lives in a timely manner. Yoga has also been shown to improve brain function by building new brain synapses. Which at one time doctors thought we could not. Which led to the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” By practicing the simultaneous actions of Yoga such as asana, pranayama, and mantras. When we learn something new especially in Yoga where you are learning new information with physical movements your brain starts increasing neuroplasticity by creating new connections between neurons, building new synapses.
Using a functional MRI, doctors can scan the brain. Through this type of scan doctors have found that the left prefrontal cortex shows heightened activity in people who meditate. This finding correlates with people who have greater levels of happiness, better immune function, and a more positive outlook on life. It also shows that people who meditate have less anger and has been used to treat people who at one time could not control their tempers or manage their anger. Another studied showed that practicing Yoga lessened depression. This study was conducted over a 3-month and a 6-month period. When compared to a group who were given anti depressant medication it showed that both groups increased their serotonin levels almost identically. Proving that the mind can truly heal emotional disorders without drugs.
In conclusion, it is clear to see that the connection between mind and body is not an idea or theory but a solid fact and that the practice of Yoga cultivates this connection. Allowing people to overcome most if not all diseases and illnesses of both the body and mind. Also. Creating a happier more positive life for its students. It is said we only use 10% of our brains capacity. Which makes you wonder what can we do if we put our mind’s to it? The possibilities could be endless with that kind of mental power. There are things we can do that we cannot even imagine. Hopefully, as we evolve we will truly learn what is important in life, how to treat others and ourselves. We as a race will be able to unlock the hidden potential of our minds and not need medication. We at that point will be able to think ourselves healthy. Or think a broken bone to heal. Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
Namaste
Sean M. Anderson is a “soon to be Yoga teacher” from North Attleboro, Massachusetts.
