If you’ve visited a big city in the last 10 or 20 years, you might have noticed a health trend: yoga. The age-old Indian spiritual practice has found its way into gymnasiums, universities and even religious centers around the world. New yoga centers seem to pop up every week, announcing new styles of yoga and making new health claims. Interestingly, yoga is not only seen as a recreational activity, but primarily as a means of improving and maintaining health: national surveys show that about 31 million American adults (over 13% of the population) have used yoga for health reasons.
Yoga has been shown in clinical trials to reduce pain by stretching muscles and aligning posture, lower blood pressure by rebalancing the autonomic nervous system, and reduce inflammation by regulating chronic stress. . In recent times, yoga is increasingly seen not only as a way to reduce stress and increase physical fitness but also to overcome mental suffering. It should come as no real surprise: Already around 2000 years ago, the Indian sage Patanjali, the “grandfather” of modern yoga, defined yoga as the “control of the fluctuations of the mind”. And “fluctuations of the mind”, rumination or uncontrollable thoughts are cardinal symptoms of several mental disorders.
This potential of yoga to control unwanted wanderings of the mind saw great success when Hillary Clinton reported how “alternate nostril breathing”, a classic yogic breathing technique, helped her heal from her electoral defeat – and to give up on his dream of becoming president. the United States. However, beyond gossip and anecdotal evidence, there are solid scientific facts and clear mechanisms by which yoga may help relieve mental symptoms:
Trauma-related symptoms
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major public health problem affecting up to 6% of the world’s population. PTSD results from significant traumatic experiences and is therefore much more common among veterans, survivors of wars or natural disasters, and victims of violence. The syndrome is characterized by reliving, avoidance and excitement. PTSD is associated with a structure in the brain called the amygdala that connects the memory of certain experiences to emotions – in the case of PTSD, the amygdala is over-activated and thus constantly produces the aforementioned symptoms.
By reducing stress, yoga can increase parasympathetic activity, this is the relaxation response, and could thus directly reduce the activity of the amygdala. It seems to be mainly motivated by yogic breathing, such as alternate nostril breathing. From a psychological point of view, PTSD is characterized by the paradox that patients feel anxious about the future while the traumatic event is in the past. This is primarily driven by over-generalization of past experiences and negative evaluation of one’s own actions, negative reactions from others, and life prospects.
Yoga involves aspects of mindfulness, it is open attention without judgment and an acknowledgment of even unpleasant emotions or memories. This may increase emotion regulation rather than avoidance. Mindfulness of the transient nature of one’s momentary physical, sensory and emotional experience during yoga practice is believed to lead to a change in self-assessmentthus reducing the symptoms of PTSD.
In line with these thoughts and theories, clinical trials have shown that yoga can actually reduce PTSD symptoms: studies in North and South America and Australia have recruited veterans and others with lived experience. and randomly assigned them to yoga interventions lasting weeks to months or to control groups that were either not treated at all or given fairly unspecific health counseling. In a meta-analysis of these studiesmy colleagues and I demonstrate that participants who practiced yoga experienced a much stronger, clinically relevant reduction in their symptoms – even though the yoga style was not specifically designed for participants with PTSD.
fear and anxiety
Other studies have targeted anxiety disorders. Anxiety is a normal response to specific situations or events. Without anxiety, humanity would surely not have survived. However, excessive fear or anxiety may indicate an anxiety disorder. In generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), for example, high levels of anxiety, which are associated with concerns about health, relationships, work, and financial problems, lead to a wide variety of physical symptoms and mood changes. behaviour. In the United States, more than 4% of the population They are believed to suffer only from GAD.
Excessive anxiety also has long-term health implications, with somatic symptoms of anxiety, such as palpitations and irregular heartbeat, being associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Interestingly, treating anxiety is one of the main reasons people give for practicing yoga. Again, mindfulness seems to play a key role here: GAD patients have been shown to less “aware” than the general population, indicating that mindful bodywork, breathing and meditation can help here – perhaps by “controlling the fluctuations of the mind”? Interestingly, anxiety disorders are more common in patients with respiratory disorders such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and respiratory rehabilitation has been an essential part of many cognitive behavioral therapy approaches for anxiety disorders.
Not surprisingly, yogic breathing is often considered the main part of yoga when it comes to treat mental disorders, not the well-known yoga postures. The effects of yoga have been studied for a number of anxiety disorders, including GAD or phobia. We analyzed these studies in another meta-analysis. Although the results are positive, most of the studies are quite old and do not meet the demands of modern science, so there is an urgent need to replicate them. What yoga clearly does is relieve symptoms of anxiety in healthy individuals – whether it’s everyday diffuse fear, exam anxiety, or performance anxiety in the musicians.
It is unclear whether alternate nostril breathing alone can really improve mental suffering. What is clear is that yoga can help relieve trauma-related symptoms and anxiety, and breathing exercises are a primary mechanism by which it does this. Needless to say, patients with mental disorders should not try yoga alone but only after consulting their psychiatrist and psychotherapist. For minor daily anxiety, simple yogic breathing techniques might be worth trying as a self-care strategy.
