I have been a decades long practitioner of yoga and know in my body, heart and soul that yoga is good for me but I gotta say I am thrilled to see the National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has summarized the research to date on the impacts of yoga on things like overall wellness, pain management, mental health, in children, in pregnant women, for quitting smoking and losing weight etc.
They summarize the research suggesting that yoga may:
- Help improve general wellness by relieving stress, supporting good health habits, and improving mental/emotional health, sleep, and balance.
- Relieve low-back pain and neck pain, and possibly pain from tension-type headaches and knee osteoarthritis.
- Help people who are overweight or obese lose weight.
- Help people quit smoking.
- Help people manage anxiety or depressive symptoms associated with difficult life situations.
- Relieve menopause symptoms.
- Help people with chronic diseases manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
With a caveat - Although there’s been a lot of research on the health effects of yoga, many studies have included only small numbers of people and haven’t been of high quality. Therefore, in most instances, we can only say that yoga has shown promise for particular health uses, not that it’s been proven to help.
For those interested in the research on yoga, I highly recommend you give the Yoga: What you Need to Know site a review. (I've got it bookmarked and plan to pull data as I prepare for any resilience, self care or wellness presentations!)
And now, I am off to my outdoor yoga class this Sunday morning!
Be well, Gail
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