About the anti-anxiety benefits of yoga

Strike a Pose to Reduce Anxiety

By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD, practicing clinical pharmacist and freelance medical writer.

Source: BrainBlogger, a biomedical blog that covers topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives.

Yoga is a practice almost as old as time itself. It combines mental and physical elements that people today use to enhance spirituality, exercise, decrease stress, and increase well-being. While many practitioners of yoga seem almost mystical and more philosophical than the average bear, a new study proves that you need not be a yogi to achieve the anti-anxiety benefits of yoga.

Research published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine reports that practicing yoga postures increased the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. (GABA is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that is responsible for reduced anxiety, increased relaxation, and enhanced muscle tone.) In this study, healthy subjects with no significant physical or psychiatric illnesses or conditions participated in 60-minute yoga sessions 3 times weekly for 12 weeks. Alternatively, a comparison group participated in a metabolically matched walking program for the same length of time. Subjective mood and anxiety measurements were recorded, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans were completed at baseline and at 12 weeks.

Overall, yoga participants experienced greater improvement in mood and decrease in anxiety, compared to the walking group. More objectively, yoga participants showed increased levels of GABA in the brain. Positive correlations were observed between improved mood and decreased anxiety and GABA levels. This appears to be the first time that long-term behavioral interventions have produced increased GABA levels. (A similar pilot study showed that a single yoga session increased GABA levels.) Pharmacological agents are frequently used to increase GABA activity in order to reduce anxiety and improve mood. Yoga, in contrast to pharmacological agents, carries almost no risk of adverse consequences and costs very little, if anything, to practice.

In addition to decreasing anxiety, yoga and other mindfulness-based techniques improve stress, depression, overall well-being, neuroticism, eating habits, energy levels, and pain. Yoga has been prescribed for arthritis and other joint and muscle disorders, with strikingly positive benefits. Yoga also promotes immune function, weight loss, decreased heart rate and blood pressure, and muscle strength. Yoga has even been shown to decrease premature delivery when practiced by women during pregnancy. While other forms of exercise bring about the same benefits, yoga has shown more robust benefits than other activities.

With seemingly all the benefits and none of the risks, yoga should be explored as part of a treatment plan for individuals with mood and anxiety disorders. Or, for anyone wishing to improve well-being. So, grab a yoga mat and strike a pose. Namaste.

References

• Field T (2011). Yoga clinical research review. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 17 (1), 1-8 PMID: 21168106
• Haaz S, & Bartlett SJ (2011). Yoga for arthritis: a scoping review. Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America, 37 (1), 33-46 PMID: 21220084
• Smith BW, Shelley BM, Dalen J, Wiggins K, Tooley E, & Bernard J (2008). A pilot study comparing the effects of mindfulness-based and cognitive-behavioral stress reduction. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 14 (3), 251-8 PMID: 18370583
• Streeter CC, Jensen JE, Perlmutter RM, et al. Yoga Asana sessions increase brain GABA levels: a pilot study. J Altern Complement Med. May 2007;13(4):419-426. PMID: 17532734
• Streeter CC, Whitfield TH, Owen L, Rein T, Karri SK, Yakhkind A, Perlmutter R, Prescot A, Renshaw PF, Ciraulo DA, & Jensen JE (2010). Effects of yoga versus walking on mood, anxiety, and brain GABA levels: a randomized controlled MRS study. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 16(11), 1145-52 PMID: 20722471

Ruled by the Body: How Physical Illness Affects the Brain

'Many common ailments and physical conditions can influence the brain, leaving you depressed, anxious or slow-witted.' says Erich Kasten,professor of medical psychology at the University of Lbeck in Germany in an article that appeared in Scientific American on March 3, 2011.

According to Kasten, doctors often forget to ask patients about psychological symptoms. Conversely, psychologists and psychiatrists may treat mental troubles in isolation without looking for a physical cause. But now some doctors and psychologists are reviving the decades-old discipline of somatopsychology, which centers on the effects of physical illness on the brain.

'In Western culture people have long treated body and mind as separate. This dichotomy, popularized by French philosopher René Descartes in the 17th century, is still reflected in medical practice, as the specialists who look after our bodies remain different from those who attend to our psyches. Of course, the division has blurred in recent decades. We now know, after all, that the mind is housed in a physical entity, the brain, which is part of the body. And most people are also aware that psychological problems can produce physical symptoms in the form of psychosomatics; for instance, mental stress can spawn headaches, an upset stomach or even heart problems.

'But fewer people appreciate that the influence also runs in the other direction—that changes in your body can profoundly perturb your mental state,' he says.

Full article available at Scientific American website

Chronic stress can take years of your life

In today’s world we are expected to be busy all the time. We are expected to work long hours and chase from one place to another. Being stressed seems to have become a lifestyle choice, in fact possibly a status symbol.

After all , those who cannot complain of high stress levels can’t possibly be successful. So to be part of the in-group better we join the I-don’t-know-how-to-relax set.

But be careful before buying into that way of life. It seems that not only actual stress but even just our perceptions of being stressed may lead to premature aging and disease.

Over the years a number of scientific studies have shown a link between chronic psychological stress and conditions such as cardiovascular disease and weakened immune function but until recently the exact mechanisms by which stress influences disease processes was unknown.

In 2004 Science Daily reported that although a study published in the November issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a UCSF-led team reported that psychological stress may exact its toll, at least in part, by affecting molecules believed to play a key role in cellular aging and possibly, disease development.

The team determined that chronic stress, and the perception of life stress, each had a significant impact on particular DNA-protein complexes called telomeres that promote genetic stability. Telomeres play a critical role in determining the number of times a cell divides, its health, and its life span.

Previous studies have shown that an enzyme within the cell, called telomerase, keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging.

The UCSF study involved 58 women between the ages of 20 and 50, all of whom were biological mothers either of a chronically ill child (39 women, so-called "caregivers") or a healthy child (19 women, or "controls").

One of the most important findings of the study was that the perception of being stressed proved to have the same effects on the body as actual stress. According to Science Daily “the most striking result, (showed that) the telomeres of women with the highest perceived psychological stress - across both groups - had undergone the equivalent of approximately 10 years of additional aging, compared with the women across both groups who had the lowest perception of being stressed. The highest-stress group also had significantly decreased telomerase activity and higher oxidative stress than the lowest-stress group.”

According to co-author Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF the study provided the first evidence that chronic psychological stress and the way a person perceives stress may change the rate of cellular aging.

Lead author Elissa Epel, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry states that these findings “suggests a cellular mechanism for how chronic stress may cause premature onset of disease. … Chronic stress appears to have the potential to shorten the life of cells, at least immune cells."

But how does stress negatively influence the workings of telomerase causing people to be more susceptible to disease?

The answer came in 2008 when UCLA scientists found that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres.

When stressed the levels of cortisol in the body rises to support a "fight or flight" response. If the hormone remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, though, it wears down the immune system.

The research was published in the May 2008 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

Sources:

1. UCSF-led stydy Suggests A Way Psychological Stress Gets 'Under The Skin'
2. Mechanism Behind Mind-Body Connection Discovered