Health & Wellness

Yoga has many benefits. The positive impacts of implementing yoga into your lifestyle can be reflected in your day to day life. Take a look at some of the health and wellness benefits of yoga below:

Exercise

Improves strength, flexibility, mobility, and balance
Improves cardiac health; lowers blood pressure and cholesterol
Increases working lung volume

Stress

Yoga can help relieve anxiety, especially for those suffering with mental health
Increased chronic stress, as measured by cortisol hormone in your blood, is related to decreased mental health, and translates to poor systemic health such as heart problems
A study found that individuals had lower cortisol levels after just a single yoga class1
Evidence has shown that yoga increases people’s resiliency and ability to deal with stress in the workplace and to better cope with future stressors

Brain Structure

Consistency:

Repeatedly performing actions and thoughts over time rewires the brain
Being consistent with the practice of yoga also leads to increased consistency with other healthy habits that get wired into the brain

Connection

We can create powerful chains of association of healthy habits that form strong and complex neural networks during the practice of yoga
With practice yoga becomes associated with healthy habits

Reward System

When the brain’s reward system is firing new connections in the brain grow even stronger
The reward system releases “feel good” chemicals, such as neurotransmitters like dopamine and endorphins that reinforce feel good activities and connected activities

Mental Health

Yoga improves attention in those with mental health difficulties
Yoga incorporates mindfulness and recognition of one’s own emotions

Workplaces

All employees experience stresses in their work and personal lives.

Stress can negatively impact employee health

Stress has been shown to raise blood pressure, increase your blood sugar levels, and increase your risk of heart disease
Elevated chronic stress can raise levels of cortisol, a hormone in your body, and this can impair your immune system leading to employees becoming sick more often and their overall health deteriorating

Stress can decrease employee productivity

By impairing immune function, stress can lead to employees being sick more often and being unable to come into work
Chronic stress and anxiety can affect the ability to think clearly as well as the ability to concentrate on tasks
It can lead to irritability, anger, and sadness in many people hindering team dynamics and team cohesion among employees

Stress can lead to mental health issues including anxiety and depression

Although stress may be a common occurrence in many workplaces, managing stress appropriately is key to avoiding many harmful implications associated with stress

Yoga and mindfulness are recognized as ideal strategies to reduce stress and improve mental health
Research has shown that mind-body interventions significantly reduce stress and can even lead to improved sleep quality
Research has also shown that yoga and mindfulness can improve symptoms of anxiety and depression leading to overall better mental health

Research conducted in workplaces has demonstrated that yoga and mindfulness can have multiple benefits:

It can lead to improved energy levels and confidence
Yoga can also prepare employees to deal with future stressors and thereby increases their ability to concentrate and complete tasks effectively

If you are interested in mindfulness or yoga for the workplace visit: services

Recovery

You, your friends, or your family members may be undergoing addiction recovery. Yoga, when implemented as an adjunct to conventional treatment, allows you to join your loved ones in their journey to recovery. Here are the benefits of yoga for those recovering from addiction:

Yoga Provides a Safe Environment for Social Sharing and Support

Allows for the development of valuable coping strategies including breathing techniques
Normalizes feelings surrounding mental health and addiction

Yoga Reduces Stress Levels

Yoga can help relieve anxiety, especially for those suffering with mental health issues
Increased chronic stress, as measured by cortisol hormone in your blood, is related to decreased mental health, and translates to poor systemic health such as heart problems
A study found that individuals had lower cortisol levels after just a single class1
Addiction correlates closely with chronic stress, which in turn correlates with immunosuppression and vulnerability to developing diseases.
This is an especially strong therapy for those struggling with substance abuse as stress is often associated with increased risk of relapse7

Yoga Improves Mental Health

Cortisol levels were lower for alcohol detox patients when prescribed yoga, than when they were prescribed benzodiazepines, a drug commonly used to treat alcohol withdrawal symptoms8
Yoga is associated with reducing the symptoms of those suffering from PTSD9
Yoga decreases withdrawal symptoms of those going through detox10

Yoga is a Great Way to Exercise

Yoga is reported as being as good or better at improving strength, flexibility, and balance as a workout led by a personal fitness instructor

If you are interested in mindfulness or yoga for mental wellness or recovery visit: services

Service & Healthcare

As a service or healthcare provider, implementing yoga into your practice and incorporating it as an adjunct to your patients’ current treatment can benefit both you and your patient. Yoga alone should not be considered as a substitute for appropriate medication, however, introduction of yogic practices as an additional therapy will help relieve chronic stress and prevent further progression of their condition. Patients that have a hard time implementing physical activity in their daily lives can opt for yoga as an alternative to conventional exercises.

Scientific Evidence for Benefits of Yoga through Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change. Up until about 15 years ago it was thought that the brain was “hard-wired” by the age of five or six
Similar to muscles, regions of your brain become larger and stronger the more they are used, and unused regions become weaker and die off
The mechanism of neuroplasticity involves processes such as axonal sprouting in which damaged neurons whose links are reconnected with undamaged axons that grow new nerve endings11
There have been multiple studies conducted linking yoga with health benefits including, but not limited to, improvement of depressive and anxious states, neuroprotective effects and improved concentration through neuroplasticity.

Examples of Yoga Application in Healthcare:

There are currently districts in India where yoga is even being implemented as a preventative therapy for youth. For example yoga instruction is implemented by the Block Primary Health Center as a part of the National Rural Health Mission12
Health officials in Spain have applied the concept of yoga as an adjunct therapy for those in a public health center with hypertension.
Even with a small sample size they found that yoga in addition to prescribed medicines, significantly decreases blood pressure and heart rate to healthy ranges13

What you can do as a health care provider:

Critically consider yoga as an adjunctive therapy for those who are at risk or are facing non-communicable diseases.
Yoga has variable support for many diseases. The most reliable way to know if yoga therapy will work in your practice for specific diseases and health problems is to look at primary research.
There are a variety of open sourced articles we recommend looking at and assessing for yourself: https://tinyurl.com/yogahealthconditions