Are There Benefits Of Practicing Yoga?
Absolutely! There are so many physical benefits of practicing yoga that it can be hard to name them all. The primary emphasis of yoga is on well-being of the self. It is not considered to be therapy for specific illnesses or injuries. Instead, it gives a broad holistic approach, where practitioners learn a new lifestyle and way of thinking and being in the world. A byproduct of this "new life" is the healing effects of yoga. As a person practices yoga, they often find that some benefits of yoga are the fact that some of the specific difficulties he or she has will tend to go away. These effects have been verified clinically. Let's look as a few of the benefits of yoga as they pertain to specifics.
Healing Effects - Benefits Of Yoga
One of the most important benefits of yoga is its ability to relieve fatigue and stress, to invigorate the body vitality, and the fact that it is anti-aging and a wonderful relaxation therapy.
Yoga has been shown to improve asthma in approximately 75% of cases. Also, asthma attacks can be preventing using yoga instead of drugs. Other studies claim a 93% improvement rate.
For severe breathing problems like chronic bronchitis and emphysema, studies have shown that yoga helped with the ability to exercise, and in ways that traditional physiotherapy did not. Most of them increased their tolerance for exertion and recovered after exertion more quickly than before. They also gained the ability to control their breathing problems.
High blood pressure (hypertension) can be treated and prevented with the relaxation and exercise aspects of yoga.
Yoga is believed to reduce pain, by helping the brain's pain center regulate the secretion of natural painkillers in the body. Breathing exercises also help with reducing pain. These can be a one of the most wonderful benefits of yoga, since all of us have pain at one time or another.
Back pain has been cured and prevented by using yoga. Yoga will enhance strength and flexibility. Also, reducing the muscle tension can reduce back problems.
Diabetes has also been shown to improve while practicing yoga, so that their blood sugar lowered and they needed less oral medicine. However, the patients in this study were also put on a vegetarian diet, so the yoga alone might not have been responsible for the improvement.
According to one study examining the benefits of yoga, yoga can give one a positive outlook on life and raise one's energy level, even greater than the other options chosen for the study - relaxation and visualization. The yoga group had much greater increase in mental and physical energy and feelings of enthusiasm and alertness. (Relaxation made people more sleepy, visualization made them more sluggish and less content with life.)
Because yoga is a gentle form of exercise, it is a good way to get relief for arthritis - what a benefit of basic yoga! Exercise has long been recommended for arthritis as a treatment, but now, as long as it is not too much of a strain, yoga can help with arthritis. Yoga does not need to cause pain or strain. Even if you can only move an inch and hold the position for about five seconds, you are enhancing your body's flexibility - though slowly. Be careful not to overdo yoga on a hurting body!
Each of these benefits of yoga can be yours if you become a yogi - or practicer of yoga.
