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Yoga Reduces Stress
Yoga is one of many mind and body practices that claim to use interactions among the mind, body, and behavior to promote health. While there are many approaches (including meditation, tai chi, music therapy, and qigong), their goals are not dissimilar, and there are many overlapping features between these mind-body practices.
Yoga is becoming increasingly popular. It can help with a myriad of conditions, including fitness, strength, flexibility, balance and mobility, quality of life, pain control, cardiovascular disease, smoking cessation, asthma, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and cognitive function.
Researchers have examined the upsides of practicing yoga in over three hundred randomized controlled studies. More the one hundred meta-analyses (reviews of a collection of research investigations) have been performed. Today, we’ll look at the evidence for stress and anxiety.
A meta-analysis of the effects of Hatha yoga on anxiety, published in 2016, provides some insight. Researchers identified seventeen studies (eleven waitlist-controlled) involving a cumulative 501 participants who received Hatha yoga. Subjects reported their levels of anxiety before and after practice. Here is what the study authors discovered:
The number of hours of yoga practiced was associated with treatment effectiveness…
