Page 32 - Time Special Edition Alternative Medicine (January 2020)
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Just 10 minutes of yoga a day helps build bone mineral density in middle-aged subjects.
Luckily for our culture, another one has. Re- acid), a neurotransmitter that helps promote a state
searchers at Ohio State University College of Med- of calm. (Low GABA levels, in contrast, are associ-
icine compared 25 novice yogis with 25 expert yogis ated with depression and anxiety.) “Yoga may work
(those who had been practicing at least twice a week in part by correcting imbalances in the autonomic
for a year or more). The expert yogis had lower blood nervous system caused by stress,” says one of the
levels of interleukin-6, a marker of inflammation study’s authors, Chris Streeter, a Boston Univer sity
that often results from stress, which in turn con- School of Medicine psychiatrist.
tributes to heart disease and diabetes. In addition, A number of small studies have shown that yoga
IL-6 levels in the ex pert yogis increased less after can reduce physical pain too, particularly back pain.
they were subjected to stressors. One study compared three treatment options over
Mood disorders also seem to respond positively a 12-week period: a weekly yoga class, a weekly
to yoga. While any number of medicines can boost stretching class and reading self- help books on back
mood and lower anxiety, too often it is difficult to care. The yoga and stretching groups both improved
come up with the right cocktail of drugs for par- significantly during and after the trial; these partici-
ticular patients. And the side effects can be deter- pants had less pain and were able to move more eas-
ring. Yoga, though, has been shown to have a Pro- ily than the readers. The study’s authors concluded
zac-like effect on the brain. Researchers at Boston that because the two exercise groups had similar ef-
University School of Medicine, for ex ample, moni- fects, yoga’s contribution to alleviating back pain
tored two groups of individuals for 12 weeks: one was “largely attributable to the physical benefits of
group walked for 60 minutes three times a week; stretching and strengthening the muscles.”
the other spent the same amount of time doing Yet the findings, which were published in Ar-
yoga. The yoga group reported lower levels of anxi- chives of Internal Medicine, may not tell the whole
ety and a greater improvement in mood. As mood story. “All the yoga subjects did the exact same
rose, so did levels of GABA (gamma-amniobutyric moves,” notes Loren Fishman, the medical director
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