Question

write and long article on yoga and health please is urgent

Answer 1

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) strengthenes the body and creates a feeling of well being. From the psychological view point, 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 practise yoga. Yoga helps to discipline our sense of power with the„power of our own.

Answer 2

Yoga has been the subject of research in the past few decades for therapeutic purposes for modern epidemic diseases like mental stress, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Individual studies report beneficial effect of yoga in these conditions, indicating that it can be used as nonpharmaceutical measure or complement to drug therapy for treatment of these conditions. However, these studies have used only yoga asana, pranayama, and/ or short periods of meditation for therapeutic purposes. General perception about yoga is also the same, which is not correct. Yoga in fact means union of individual consciousness with the supreme consciousness. It involves eight rungs or limbs of yoga, which include yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. Intense practice of these leads to self-realization, which is the primary goal of yoga. An analytical look at the rungs and the goal of yoga shows that it is a holistic way of life leading to a state of complete physical, social, mental, and spiritual well-being and harmony with nature. This is in contrast to purely economic and material developmental goal of modern civilization, which has brought social unrest and ecological devastation.

Keywords: Anxiety, chronic pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, meditation, mental stress, pranayama, yoga

Introduction

Mental stress, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are fast growing epidemics consequent to changing lifestyles accompanying globalization and modernization. Although yoga originated in India thousands of years ago, it was introduced to western world in 19th century. In the past few decades, it has been the subject of research as a therapeutic measure in mental stress, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

Yoga is effective in prevention as well as management of stress and stress-induced disorders. A systematic review based on eight studies observed that though they reported positive results but due to methodological inadequacies it is not possible to say that yoga is effective in treating anxiety or anxiety disorders in general. However, there are encouraging results, particularly with obsessive compulsive disorder.A systematic review has demonstrated beneficial effects of yoga interventions on depressive disorders. A study on patients who were taking antidepressant medications but who were only in partial remission showed significant reductions for depression, anger, anxiety, and neurotic symptoms. The study supports the potential of yoga as a complementary treatment of depression.

It has been shown that yoga decreases anxiety, stress, and levels of salivary cortisolas well as plasma rennin levels, and 24-h urine norepinephrine and epinephrine levels. These may be the possible mechanisms for effects of yoga on stress and stress-related diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease.

In 2008, researchers at the University of Utah showed that among control subjects and yoga practitioners, by functional magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs), that yoga practitioner had the higher pain tolerance and lower pain-related brain activity during the MRI. The study shows the importance of yoga in regulating pain responses and associated stress.