Yoga and the Need of Its Integration in Modern Medicine
Journal of the Association of Physicians of India December 1, 2022 Gouranga Santra 18 citations
Yoga offers wide-ranging health benefits including relief from stress, anxiety, depression, and obsessive thoughts, as well as promoting better sleep and helping with post-traumatic stress disorder. Pranayama (breath control) alters autonomic responses by increasing vagal tone and decreasing sympathetic discharge, while yoga increases GABAergic activity for an anxiolytic effect. It reduces stress-induced cortisol release, hyperglycemia, seizure frequencies, and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease, and aids poststroke rehabilitation. Yoga lowers blood pressure and heart rate, increases heart rate variability, reduces allostatic overload, improves lung vital capacity, musculoskeletal flexibility, and sustained muscle contraction. It serves as an adjunct to drug therapy for depression and anxiety and may be an alternative to psychoanalysis and cognitive behavior therapy.