Hip Opening in Yoga

The hip joint
The hip joint is where the proximal end of our femur meets our pelvis. We have two hip joints, one on the right and one on the left side of our body. To create the hip joint, the knobby end of our femur, the femoral head, inserts into the indentation in our pelvis, called the acetabulum.

The hip joint is a ball-and-socket type joint. Ball-and-socket joints allow for movement in all directions. At our hip joints, our legs can move in all planes and in a wide range of motion. This is great when we need mobility, but we also need stability at our hip joints. Our legs, after all, have to carry our body weight when we walk and run. For that reason, we have many strong muscles and ligaments that cross in every direction around the hip joint. They help maintain the stability of the hip joint while allowing us to do powerful movements, like walking uphill, running, and kicking.

How do our hips get tight?
When we develop the muscles that surround the hip joint through sports and activities, they can get short and tight. The tension in muscles or groups of muscles, relative to muscles that do the same (agonists) or opposite actions (antagonists), can also get out of balance if we use them repetitively in certain patterns. For example, our abductors (gluteus minimus and medius) might be tight relative to our adductor group. Or, our hip flexors (rectus femoris, iliopsoas, and others) might be tight relative to our hip extenders (hamstrings and gluteus maximus).

Regularly engaging in certain kinds of sports and activities, like cycling or running, for example, can tighten muscles around our hips, restrict range of motion, and result in imbalances in tension around our hip joints. Other types of activities, like lots of sitting, can also lead to imbalances. Sitting tends to shorten certain muscles when we do a lot of it.

Why open the hips?
The hips in yoga are important joints for connecting the feet to the upper body. When we move, force travels through our ankles, knees, and hips to get from the ground into our pelvis and beyond. When we start moving, even into simpler postures like triangle, tension in our hips restricts ease of movement in the pose and can push tension into other joints like our knees. More functionally, opening the hips in yoga can allow us to sit in a more neutral position since it enables the pelvis to move more freely, possibly reducing postural compensations in our body. And that can reduce the likelihood of chronic pain patterns like low back and neck pain.

Yoga stretches our hip muscles
When we first start a yoga practice, we may encounter tight muscles around our hip joints. We may also encounter particular imbalances between groups of muscles. Depending on the specific yoga practices we’re doing, yoga practice can help us stretch tight muscles around our hips, opening our hip range of motion.

We can work on hip opening in yoga in just about all categories of yoga postures. There really aren’t any poses that don’t involve the hip joint in some way. For example, in forward bends, we’re lengthening muscles on the back of the hip joint. In backbends, we’re lengthening muscles on the front of the hip joint. There is one specific category of poses, however, that we think of when we talk about hip opening in yoga. That category is poses that include external rotation of the hip joint.

External rotation poses
External rotation poses are any of those that lead up to more extreme versions like full lotus and leg behind head. Common variations that are more accessible include standing poses like tree pose and seated poses like janu sirsasana A. Even foundational poses like triangle and side angle include some aspect of external hip rotation within the pose. In a triangle pose, we’re externally rotating the front hip. In a side angle, we’re also externally rotating the front hip joint. So when we say hip opening in yoga, what we often mean is preparing our hips with the kind of range of motion to work with postures that include a half lotus or lotus aspect, or in more extreme range of motion, a leg behind the head.

What hip muscles are we lengthening?
You might initially imagine we would want to lengthen the internal rotators of the hip, in order to more easily do external rotation. However, in yoga postures, we’re really doing a combination of movements most of the time. We rarely move only in one plane, so the direction of muscular action gets more complicated. For external rotation in seated postures when we’ve flexed the hip joint specifically, the anatomy gets a little trickier. We actually need to lengthen the deep six lateral rotator muscles and the gluteal muscles to find more ease in external rotation from this position.

How do we do hip opening in yoga?
Whether you’re preparing for more advanced postures, or you just want a more functional range of motion in your hips, I recommend you start small with accessible poses and preparation stretches. Depending on the amount of tension in your hip muscles, it can take a significant amount of time to lengthen those muscles. Going slowly and starting with more accessible poses can help prevent injury while still opening your hips.

Standing postures
In standing, accessible postures might include standing foundational postures like triangle and side angle, or simpler poses that incorporate external hip rotation like tree pose. You might also include a standing, one-legged version of the fire logs stretch that many people are familiar with. Stand a foot or so away from the wall and rest your back against the wall. Then bring one leg up and place the foot just above the knee of the opposite leg. Now fold forward until you feel a stretch along the outside of one or both hips. You can explore what happens when you lean a little to the right or left. You might find a better spot where the stretch feels more productive. After a few breaths on one side, repeat the stretch on the other side.

Seated postures
In seated postures, we can use the same approach to opening our hips to prepare for more complex yoga postures. Start with more accessible postures like janu sirsasana A. Or, try out my series of preparation stretches specifically intended to open your hips for lotus. When simpler ranges of motion feel easy, you can deepen the pose or add more complex variations as you work toward doing poses like full lotus.

Consistency
Whether you’re working on hip opening in yoga in standing poses, seated postures, or both, you’ll get the most benefit if you are consistent in your practice. If you start with smaller ranges of motion and practice consistently, you’ll build up to deeper ranges of motion over time. As you work with a hip-opening intention, be attentive to your knees. Remember that the hip joint and knee joint are intimately connected. Don’t put force into your knees to try to compensate for tight hips by forcing yourself into a pose that your body isn’t ready for yet. Take the time to do hip opening in yoga gradually.

Conclusion
Hip opening in yoga can refer to generally increasing the range of motion around the hip joints by lengthening the muscles. However, hip opening in yoga often refers more specifically to increasing our range of motion in the external hip rotation direction to prepare us for poses like half lotus and full lotus. Hip opening can help us access yoga poses, and it can help us move and sit in more functional, balanced ways.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2025/08/04/hip-opening-in-yoga

Source: David Keil

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Yoga and Mental Health

With its emphasis on breathing practices and meditation — both of which help calm and center the mind — it's hardly surprising that yoga also brings mental benefits, such as reduced anxiety and depression. What may be more surprising is that it actually makes your brain work better.

A sharper brain
When you lift weights, your muscles get stronger and bigger. When you do yoga, your brain cells develop new connections, and changes occur in brain structure as well as function, resulting in improved cognitive skills such as learning and memory. Yoga strengthens parts of the brain that play a key role in memory, attention, awareness, thought, and language. Think of it as weightlifting for the brain.

Studies using MRI scans and other brain imaging technology have shown that people who regularly did yoga had a thicker cerebral cortex (the area of the brain responsible for information processing) and hippocampus (the area of the brain involved in learning and memory) compared with nonpractitioners. These areas of the brain typically shrink as you age, but the older yoga practitioners showed less shrinkage than those who did no yoga. This suggests that yoga may counteract age-related declines in memory and other cognitive skills.

Research also shows that yoga and meditation may improve executive functions, such as reasoning, decision-making, memory, learning, reaction time, and accuracy on tests of mental acuity.

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Improved mood
All exercise can boost your mood by lowering levels of stress hormones, increasing the production of feel-good chemicals known as endorphins, and bringing more oxygenated blood to your brain. But yoga may have additional benefits. It can affect mood by elevating levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is associated with better mood and decreased anxiety.

Meditation also reduces activity in the limbic system — the part of the brain dedicated to emotions. As your emotional reactivity diminishes, you have a more tempered response when faced with stressful situations.

Drugs and talk therapy have traditionally been the go-to remedies for depression and anxiety. But complementary approaches such as yoga also help, and yoga stacks up well when compared with other complementary therapies.

A review of 15 studies, published in the journal Aging and Mental Health, looked at the effect of a variety of relaxation techniques on depression and anxiety in older adults. In addition to yoga, interventions included massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, stress management, and listening to music. While all the techniques provided some benefit, yoga and music were the most effective for both depression and anxiety. And yoga appeared to provide the longest-lasting effect.

A number of small studies have found that yoga can help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is not used by itself, but as an add-on treatment to help reduce intrusive memories and emotional arousal and to produce calmer, steadier breathing. Deep, slow breathing is associated with calmer states because it helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

Discover the healing power of Yoga with Intermediate Yoga, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2025/01/16/yoga-and-mental-health

Source: Harvard Health Publishing

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Yoga and Inflammation

How Yoga Can Help Reduce Inflammation in the Body

Inflammation is a natural immune response in the body, typically occurring when the body fights infection or heals injury. However, chronic inflammation, which can persist for months or years, has been linked to a variety of health issues, including heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions. While traditional methods such as medication and dietary changes are commonly used to manage inflammation, yoga has emerged as a powerful tool in reducing inflammation and promoting overall health. Yoga, with its emphasis on mindfulness, movement, and breath control, offers a holistic approach to reducing inflammation by addressing both the body and the mind.

One of the primary ways yoga helps reduce inflammation is through its ability to lower stress. Chronic stress is a key contributor to inflammation, as it triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which, when sustained at high levels, can lead to an overactive immune response. Yoga, particularly practices that focus on deep breathing and relaxation, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps to counteract the "fight or flight" response and reduce stress hormones in the body. Practices like Pranayama (breath control), meditation, and restorative yoga are particularly effective in calming the mind and promoting a sense of peace, thereby reducing the inflammatory response.

In addition to stress reduction, yoga encourages physical movement that improves circulation, increases lymphatic drainage, and supports the body's natural detoxification processes. Certain yoga postures, such as twists, forward folds, and inversions, stimulate the digestive system and increase blood flow, allowing for the efficient elimination of waste products and toxins that can contribute to inflammation. Moreover, regular practice of yoga enhances flexibility, reduces muscle tension, and improves posture, all of which can help to relieve chronic pain and discomfort associated with inflammation.

Yoga also supports the body's immune system in a unique way. By promoting better circulation, yoga helps immune cells travel through the bloodstream more efficiently, allowing them to target areas of the body where inflammation is present. Additionally, the practice of yoga has been shown to increase the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins that help regulate the immune system and reduce excessive inflammation.

Often, when people feel stressed, they tend to eat unhealthy food, drink alcohol, use drugs or seek adrenaline or dopamine causing activities. Anything to numb out their emotional pain. People who regularly practice yoga find they have tools like breathing practices, yoga poses, meditation and a community they can often rely upon to help reduce stress.

In addition, those who have truly found yoga to be a powerful tool for healing, often build their lives around their yoga practice. As a result more structured eating, sleeping, and general consumption habits help create greater stability in ones life. Someone is less likely to stay up late, eat sugary foods or consume alcohol the night before a morning yoga class. That structure of self care plays out in many other areas of peoples lives. They often make better decisions around destructive behavior and find the strength to create healthy boundaries in their personal and work life.

Scientific studies have also demonstrated the anti-inflammatory effects of yoga. Research indicates that regular yoga practice can reduce markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), which are often elevated in people with chronic inflammatory conditions. For instance, studies on individuals with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis have found that yoga practice improves joint mobility, reduces pain, and lowers inflammatory biomarkers.

In conclusion, yoga offers a multifaceted approach to managing and reducing inflammation in the body. Through its combination of stress reduction, movement, and immune system support, yoga not only helps address the physical aspects of inflammation but also promotes mental well-being. For those seeking a natural and effective way to manage chronic inflammation, incorporating yoga into a regular wellness routine can provide significant relief and contribute to overall health and vitality.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2025/01/09/yoga-and-inflammation

Source: Brian Granader

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Yoga for Better Sleep

Two years into World War II, the US military realized that due to extraordinarily high levels of stress and lack of sleep many of the combat pilots began to freeze up in flight and make potentially fatal mistakes.

To counteract that, they invited Naval Ensign Bud Winter to teach relaxation to combat pilots. Winter had previously been a successful football and track coach who worked with a professor of psychology to teach athletes how to perform better under the stress of competition.

“The end goal of the program was to teach the Naval aviators how to relax so that they could learn more quickly, speed up their reaction time, sharpen their focus, and diminish their fear. The course also aimed to teach combat aviators to be able to go to sleep in two minutes any time, day or night, under any and all conditions.” (1)

The premise of the program was based on an ingenious idea: if your body is fully relaxed, your mind will follow. Bud Winter focused on teaching the pilots how to relax physically and then “slip over the threshold into a deep, relaxed sleep.” (2) He maintained that if you can get “your mind clear of any active thoughts for just ten seconds, you will be asleep.” (2)

Stepping Out of the Stress Loop
This premise is based on science. You may remember that when your sympathetic nervous system (the “fight-or-flight” mode) is activated, the blood rushes to your large skeletal muscles to enable you to fight or run away. Your muscles tense up to prepare you for action.

It works the other way around, too. If your muscles tense up, your brain gets a message that there is danger, and in response, your sympathetic nervous system gets activated. This is often referred to as “stress loop” that we can get stuck in.

To get out of the loop, we need to break it by either relaxing the body or calming the mind. It is usually easier to relax the body than to stop spinning thoughts. That is why consciously relaxing your body part by part works so well to promote mental relaxation, as well.

A Yoga Practice for Deep Sleep
In the practice below we use simple movement, deep belly breathing, and meditation to gradually let go of the regrets, worries, and problems of the day. The practice also includes guided relaxation that is based on the script that Bud Winter had used with his pilots.

It is best to do this practice right before bed, and then follow the guided relaxation once you get cozied up in bed. If you are not asleep by the end of the practice, keep your attention in the body and continue to relax it deeper and deeper.

Bud’s program was very successful. After six weeks of active training, 96% of the aviators were able to fall asleep in two minutes or less—anywhere and anytime, including during simulated noise of machine gun fire. Bud Winter later transitioned back to teaching relaxation to athletes and produced 27 Olympians.

This type of relaxation is nothing new, especially to a yoga teacher, but learning a skill like this takes commitment and consistent practice. Isn’t this kind of outcome worth it though?

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2025/01/03/yoga-for-better-sleep

Source: Yoga University

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Somatic Yoga Breathing

As our journey through life progresses, we often become more aware of the dance between two sides of us: Our habitual self in which lives all the sleights, hurts, disappointments, and frustrations we experience in our lives.

At the same, in our quiet moments, we may connect with what we might call our big S Self - that part in which feelings like forgiveness, love, compassion and joy reside.

We much prefer to spend most of our time in that big S Self. But it's not easy!

We don't get there by simply deciding to be there - that only lasts a minute or two. That big Self awareness is a feeling that must infuse our entire being to be genuine, authentic, and true.

Two things can help us reconnect with our "better half," or our best self as it is often called.

One is keeping perspective. As Rumi reminds us in the quote above, in the all too short span of our lifetime, what is really worth focusing on? From that perspective, the teaching to not plant anything but love makes perfect sense.

Perspective and mental attitude can only get us so far, however. We also need a physiology that supports the greater equanimity, and calmness where feelings of love and giving dominate our awareness.

And, you probably guessed, one way to help create this kind of balance in body and mind is yoga. In this newsletter, we offer a series of articles with tips to help introduce the ease, calm and equanimity that tends to bring out the best in us.

Somatic yoga teacher James Knight offers a video with a soothing somatic flow to bring you more present in the moment. Dr. Ray Long takes a closer look at diaphragmatic, yogic breathing and offers a video practice to help you get it right.

Olga Kabel writes on the power of nitric oxide to enhance health and well-being, and how simple breathing practices can help increase levels of this important compound.

Finally, Dr. Timothy McCall shares his insights into how to practice Bhramari Pranayama (Bees Breath) - one of the most soothing and accessible breath practices in yoga.

On the YogaUOnline side, we are very pleased to welcome back Gentle Somatic Yoga founder James Knight, who is back by popular demand to teach another livestream series - this time on Awaken the Possible: A Heart-Guided Journey of Transformation through Gentle Somatic Yoga.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2024/12/06/somatic-yoga-breathing

Source: Yoga

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How Often Should I Practice Yoga?

Weekly frequency of yoga may be enough to offer some benefits
Research Study At A Glance
The Research Question Asked
Is a weekly frequency of yoga practice enough to have beneficial health and wellness effects?

Type of Study
Clinical trial

Study Participants (Sample)
Total sample included 82 participants (49 participants in yoga group; 33 people in control)

Mean age was 22 ± 3.83 years
All participants were female
No participants had prior yoga experience
Methods
Researchers measured aspects of balance, flexibility, strength, body composition, and physiology for both a yoga treatment group and a control group who did no yoga. Yoga participants completed one 90-minute yoga class once per week for 10 weeks. Researchers collected measurements from both groups one week before the start of the study and one week after they completed the study.

Results
Some measurements of balance, torso stability, and flexibility positively increased after ten weeks of weekly yoga practice.

Conclusion
A weekly frequency of yoga for ten weeks positively affected some aspects of balance, abdominal strength, and flexibility for beginning yoga participants, but had no effect on other wellness metrics.

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Background
Yoga is a very popular movement activity with a wide variety of physical and psychological health and wellness benefits. Research supports yoga’s positive impacts on strength, flexibility, balance, reduced stress, and increased general psychological well-being among other benefits. However, compared to other health and wellness research topics, exploring yoga’s benefits in a research context is fairly recent. This means that, from a research perspective, we’re still learning what specific effects yoga has.

As researchers complete more studies evaluating yoga’s effects, the research community has suggested there are ways that yoga-related studies could provide more valuable information. For example, many yoga research studies have not included specific information about what the yoga treatment consisted of. Yoga styles are highly variable in their intensity, intentions, and emphasis. Additionally, yoga classes and interventions vary in their duration and weekly frequency. This makes it difficult to generalize what the effects of yoga are.

It makes sense that a variable like the frequency of weekly yoga practice would potentially impact what effects the practice has. Classically, the yoga texts all recommend a consistent daily practice. Our research study here at yoganatomy.com supports the idea that participants experience greater benefits from a consistent practice of five or more days per week. However, contemporary yoga is often done within the context of a class, and there are many potential barriers to attending a yoga class daily. Family and work commitments may not leave time for daily yoga. Additionally, the cost of classes and the time required to travel to a studio can prevent attending daily classes.

The research study we summarize in this article was particularly interested in the question of the effects of practice frequency on yoga’s benefits. Specifically, they wondered whether attending classes on only a weekly frequency would still have benefits for practitioners. Since it’s very common for yoga participants to attend yoga classes only once per week, the researchers’ question about the relationship between a weekly frequency of yoga and its effects is a very relevant one. Keep reading to find out more about what they learned.

Research question
Is a weekly frequency of yoga practice enough to have beneficial health and wellness effects?

Research methods
The research team recruited a group of healthy females with no previous yoga experience for their study. Participants elected to participate in either the yoga group or the control group. There were 49 participants in the yoga group with an average age of 21.49 ± 2.3 years old. There were 33 participants in the control group with an average age of 22.75 ± 5.32 years old.

The yoga group participated in yoga classes once per week for 10 weeks. The yoga classes were beginner-level Hatha yoga style of class. Each class was 90 minutes long. Each yoga session included a breath and body awareness practice, postures from all major categories of asanas, and ended with relaxation. The control group did no yoga.

The researchers took measurements from both the yoga and control groups at two points during the study. They collected baseline measurements one week before the yoga study began. They took final measurements one week after the yoga study was completed. The only exception to that was the measurements for the plank test to evaluate abdominal muscle strength. Those measurements were taken for only the yoga group at the beginning of the first and last yoga class.

Measurements for all study participants (yoga group and control) included:

Body mass index
Body weight
Body fat percentage
Static balance measured with the one-leg-stand stork test
Static balance was also measured with the functional reach test
Flexibility measured with the side bend test
Flexibility was also measured with the modified sit and reach test
Heart rate
Heart rate variability
Calories consumed
Results
The results of the one-leg-stand test with open eyes, the side bend test, and the sit and reach test all increased in the yoga group after the 10-week yoga program, but decreased in the control group.
Abdominal muscle strength as measured by the plank test increased in yoga participants from baseline to after the 10-week yoga program.
There were no effects of the 10-week yoga program on body mass index, body fat percentage, one-leg-stand test with closed eyes, functional reach test, resting heart rate, or heart rate variability.
Why is this relevant to yoga practitioners?
While many of us may set the intention to do a consistent daily yoga practice as recommended by the sutras, the reality is we are busy people with many responsibilities and obligations on our time. In trying to balance our life between family, work, friends, hobbies, and fitness goals, we can easily overschedule ourselves. And increasing our sense of being overwhelmed with commitments is definitely not the purpose of yoga. So this research study that examines the effects of weekly frequency of yoga speaks to the vast majority of yoga participants who do yoga alongside many other things.

Attending a once-a-week yoga class is common for many yoga participants who are balancing their interest in yoga with other activities. Examining the effects of a weekly frequency of yoga adds important information for those who want to know what the benefits might be compared to a more frequent yoga practice. It allows yoga participants to make a more informed decision about how often they want to practice yoga. It also helps provide realistic expectations for what kinds of benefits weekly yoga might provide compared to a more frequent practice.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2024/07/08/how-often-should-i-practice-yoga

Source: David Keil

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, yoga

Vagus Nerve, Yoga and Cancer...how are they all related?

What gives people greater resilience in the face of life-threatening illnesses like cancer? Researchers now believe that vagal nerve activity may contribute to enhanced health and longer life expectancy for individuals with cancer, as well as to enhanced cardiac health and increased resistance against dementia.

What Is The Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is an integral part of the parasympathetic nervous system – the branch of the autonomic nervous system responsible for rest, growth, and repair. Recent studies have linked higher levels of vagus nerve activity, as measured by greater heart rate variability (HF-HRV), with longer survival rates in patients with myocardial infarction and acute trauma and in those undergoing palliative care.

The research suggests that vagal nerve activity may also predict survival in patients with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer more reliably than cancer stage alone. To date, cancer prognoses have largely been determined by tumor stage, age, genetic expression, inflammatory parameters, and organ functioning.

The Relationship Of Yoga, The Vagus Nerve, And Cancer Cell Growth

Increasingly, studies are pointing to mindfulness practices like yoga and meditation as stimulating vagus nerve activity. If higher levels of vagus nerve activation influence the progression of advanced-stage cancer, it is possible that such practices may moderate the impact of cancer cell growth and increase life expectancy for those with advanced-stage cancer. Obviously, future studies would be needed to support this proposition.

The activity of the vagus nerve is often referred to as vagal tone. It has been proposed that high vagal tone may slow down tumor growth because it inhibits mechanisms responsible for tumor progression, including oxidative stress, inflammation, and excessive sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation. In addition, the vagus nerve also innervates major visceral organs where many cancers develop, including the lungs, gut, pancreas, and colon.

Vagal tone is assessed by measuring respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia refers to the rhythmic increase and decrease in heart rate that occurs synchronously with breathing. During inhalation, heart rate increases (sympathetic nervous system influence), and vagal influence decreases. During exhalation, however, heart rate decreases as vagus influence increases (parasympathetic nervous system activation). Higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia variability levels indicate greater vagal tone, reflecting the body’s ability to respond to increasing metabolic demands and environmental challenges.

Vagal Tone Moderates Tumor Growth In Advance Stage Prostate And Colon Cancer Patients
Vagal tone has been of increasing interest to clinical scientists interested in examining cancer progression because of its relationship to autonomic nervous system function and its innervation of many visceral organs. In one study, researchers in Belgium examined the medical records of 72 individuals with colorectal cancer and 113 individuals with prostate cancer, all of whom had undergone an electrocardiogram (ECG) assessment earlier in their care. ECG provides a measure of respiratory sinus arrhythmia. They also examined markers of tumor growth i,ncluding Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) at 6 6-monthollow-up for those with prostate cancer and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) for those with colorectal cancer.

For individuals with prostate cancer, the cancer stage, ranging from 1 (a small tumor that has not spread deeply to adjacent tissue) to 4 (metastatic cancer), predicted higher PSA levels at 6-month follow-up but only for individuals with low vagal tone (low HRV). These findings remained the same even after accounting for the effects of age and treatment.

Similarly, the stage of cancer significantly predicted levels of CEA one year later for those with colorectal cancer, but only in those with low HRV, even after controlling for the effects of age and treatment. Taken together, this means that higher vagal tone was related to lower tumor burden (size of tumor or number of cancer cells in the body) for those with metastatic cancer.

This study is one of the first of its kind to demonstrate the potential moderating factor of vagal tone as measured using HRV in the progression of both prostate and colorectal cancer. The authors suggest that vagal tone should be considered as a potential resiliency factor when determining a cancer prognosis, particularly for those with advanced-stage cancer.

These findings are consistent with other research that finds that people with high vagal nerve activity rebound more quickly from acute stress by showing a more rapid return to baseline levels of inflammatory, endocrine, and cardiovascular function than those with low HRV.

Vagal Tone May Influence Progression Of Advanced Stage Breast Cancer
In another study, an international team of researchers set out to examine the relationship between vagal tone and survival rates in 87 women with metastatic and recurrent breast cancer. During a follow-up period of 7-8 years, participants with high resting HRV had a median survival rate of 34.9% at 37 months, whereas those with low HRV had a mortality rate of 50%. This suggests that women with a high vagal tone may have higher survival rates than those with low vagal activity.

The study’s authors pointed to several possible explanations for this finding. First, they proposed that high HRV may be a marker of the “inflammatory reflex,” in which the vagus nerve informs the brain about tumors and modulates them via feedback to the neuroendocrine and immune systems.

Another possibility is that high vagal activity is linked to self-regulation of emotion and social activity, which may be related to higher breast cancer treatment adherence. Higher vagal activity may also be linked to lower depression and higher levels of social support. Recent investigations find that individuals with higher vagal tone are more resilient to stress, which may be particularly important when undergoing cancer treatment.

Taken together, these studies suggest that high vagal activity may serve as a protective factor that increases survival latency for men and women with prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer. Mindfulness practices like yoga and meditation decrease sympathetic activity, increase parasympathetic dominance, and may stimulate vagal activation. As such, these practices may enhance longevity and quality of life for those diagnosed with cancer. Future studies will be needed to support this proposition.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2024/06/06/vagus-nerve-yoga-and-cancerhow-are-they-all-related

Source: Yoga Online

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studies and conclusions

Background
Many types of chronic disorders do not have fully effective treatments within Western medicine. Metabolic disorders, autoimmune dysfunction, heart disease, as well as mental health issues like anxiety and depression often have only partially effective treatments in Western medicine. For that reason, medical professionals are interested in the effects of alternative and complementary therapies like yoga.

Previous yoga research has been applied to a wide range of disorders. That research reported benefits of yoga on issues such as immune system function, cardiovascular system function, muscle strength and flexibility, and mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and stress. Due to the nature of conducting research with human subjects, sample sizes and other factors often limit the conclusions we can make from individual studies on the effects of yoga. However, when we combine many smaller studies we can see trends that we might not see otherwise. The research paper we highlight in this article summarizes all the research done on yoga and health and wellness in 2020.

Research question
What were the benefits of yoga on health and wellness issues in research studies published in 2020?

Research methods
To find studies to include in their review, researchers searched the PubMed database for all studies published in 2020 with any of the following keywords: yoga, meditation, asana, pranayama, yogic breathing, or dhyana. They then evaluated all the studies that turned up in their search. They included published articles in their review if they covered a clinical trial that used yoga asana, pranayama, or meditation as their intervention, and if the paper was published in 2020. In total, they found 46 articles that met their criteria and included those papers in their review.

Results
Mental health
Eight studies were published in 2020 that examined the effects of yoga on aspects of mental health. And, multiple studies found benefits of yoga for mental health issues. Those included improvements in anxiety, depression, stress, and sleep quality after yoga treatments. Other mental health-related studies showed an association between yoga and positive body image, improved PMS symptoms, and reduced cigarette cravings in those trying to quit smoking.

Neuropsychology
Six studies were published in 2020 that explored the association between yoga and neuropsychological functioning. Studies reported various positive effects associated with yoga, including improved visual working memory, improvements in balance, gait, and joint flexion in Parkinson’s patients, and increased GABA levels in depression patients.

Cardiovascular health
There were eight studies published in 2020 that examined associations between yoga practice and cardiovascular health. The studies found a number of positive associations with yoga. Some of those included: increased walking distance, increased anaerobic threshold, positive effects on cardiac rehabilitation and respiratory function, and increased blood pressure and heart rate variability of hypertension patients.

Other health issues
Additional studies conducted in 2020 evaluated the benefits of yoga on various other health issues. Those varied from examining yoga’s effects on creativity to cancer, HIV, type-2 diabetes, restless leg syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and others. Some positive effects of yoga included reduced blood pressure, body mass index, and markers of oxidative stress in type-2 diabetes patients. Other positive effects included increased attention, memory, divergent thinking, and physical health aspects like increased muscle strength, flexibility, and balance, as well as positive effects on symptoms of restless leg syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and metabolic syndrome.

Why is this relevant to yoga practitioners?
Those of us who are long-term practitioners of yoga already know that we feel better when we do our practice. Anecdotally you, or your students if you’re a teacher, probably notice many positive health-related impacts on your life that you attribute to your yoga practice. Research review papers like the one we highlight in this article tell us more specifically how yoga practice impacts our health. One of the most interesting findings from this review was the benefits of yoga on so many different systems in our body. It shows that yoga really does affect the whole person.

Conclusion
Yoga research has covered a wide variety of health-related disorders in the past couple of decades. The review paper we highlight here summarizes only studies published in 2020. Among those studies, yoga positively affected a diverse group of chronic health disorders.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2024/01/05/studies-and-conclusions

Source: David Keil

Tags:

, yoga

science

Health Benefits of Yoga

The Research Question Asked
What were the benefits of yoga on health and wellness issues in research studies published in 2020?

Type of Study
Review study

Methods
The researchers included published articles in their review paper if the studies covered a clinical trial that used yoga asana, pranayama, or meditation as their intervention, and if a research team published a paper in 2020. In total, they included 46 articles that met their criteria.

Results
Studies published in 2020 reported benefits of yoga on multiple aspects of mental health, neuropsychology, cardiovascular health, as well as other health issues.

Conclusion
Yoga has a broad array of positive effects on a wide variety of chronic conditions.

PermaLink: https://redlotusyoga.com/blog/2024/01/05/health-benefits-of-yoga

Source: David Keil

Tags:

, yoga