JE Lifestyle Desk: Yoga is not just an ancient practice but an effective way to lead a healthy and happier life. The grand occasion Of International Yoga Day 2023 is being celebrated across the world to spread awareness about the importance of yoga in our lives. Yoga is commonly used as a complementary or alternative practice for health promotion and amelioration of a variety of conditions. It has three main components which include postures/poses (asanas), breath control/regulated breathing (pranayama), and meditation/relaxation (dhyana).
The most common reasons for practising yoga are increased flexibility and stress relief, followed by general fitness, and improvement in overall health. In addition, some practitioners use yoga to treat specific health problems, most commonly back and neck pain, stress, and arthritis.
The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association recommends that if yoga is performed at a moderate intensity for 150 minutes per week, it benefits the overall health and lifestyle. Jagran English has an exclusive conversation with Dr Ajay Agarwal, Director & HOD - Internal Medicine, Fortis Noida about the treatment of specific health problems that has been supplemented with yoga as an adjunctive therapy. Here are some insights of Dr Ajay Agarwal on how Yoga can treat several diseases by regular practise.
1. Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Diseases like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive impairment, insomnia, fatigue in Multiple sclerosis, anxiety and burnout have shown greater self-reported improvement following yoga in addition to drug therapy alone. A 2021 meta-analysis (10 studies, 359 participants) that combined active and inactive controls reported yoga improved motor function, balance, and functional mobility, reduced anxiety and depression in Parkinson's patients and increased quality of life.
2. Smoking Cessation
A meta-analysis and a subsequent randomised controlled trial found that yoga may be a helpful add-on to cognitive-behavioural therapy for smoking cessation.
3. Vasovagal Syncope
A randomised controlled trial comparing yoga as an adjunct with guideline-based therapy found yoga superior to guideline-based therapy alone in reducing the symptomatic burden and improving quality of life.
4. Musculoskeletal System
Yoga has been proven to be beneficial in low back pain, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, carpal tunnel syndrome and fibromyalgia. The effect of a one-leg balance (tree pose) added to exercise (30 minutes/day for 12 weeks) found a statistically significant improvement in measures of balance compared with exercise alone.
5. Asthma
The chronic lung disease asthma affects millions of people of all ages across the world. It is caused by inflammation and muscle tightening around the airways, which makes it harder to breathe. Yoga isn't a primary treatment for asthma, but it may help alleviate symptoms if you're already on an asthma treatment plan. Breathing exercises like pranayam help in reducing the acute exacerbations of Asthma.
However, the clinician and patient should discuss avoiding postures of yoga styles that may exacerbate health problems or increase the risk of serious adverse events. For example, patients with glaucoma and cervical disc disease should avoid inverted postures (eg, headstand, handstand, shoulder stand).
Patients with osteoporosis or osteopenia should be counselled about avoiding poses involving extreme spinal flexion and extension, which may increase the risk of vertebral compression fracture. While patients with hip arthroplasties should be cautioned that several yoga positions may put the hip outside of a safe range.
