AGE EXTENDERS: YOGA. SAYING NO TO STRESS

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AGE EXTENDERS: YOGA. SAYING NO TO STRESS

Yoga claims to be a science – a spiritual science at that.

Interestingly, science has proved many of the medical claims made by yoga to be valid.

Surprised? Most American men are. But then, the only yogis most of us ever knew were Yogi Bear and Yogi Berra. And since the end of the 1960s, it’s been easy to dismiss the concept of yoga as some navel-gazing, hippie-dippie waste of time. Not anymore.

Yoga has been shown to be effective in helping treat heart disease, diabetes, back pain, chronic pain, asthma, colitis, arthritis, depressed immune systems, all manner of stress-related illnesses, and more, says Dr. Arthur Brownstein of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Yoga itself is a complex, several-thousand-year-old, multifaceted system of living drawn and adapted from Hindu teachings. Hatha yoga is the style taught most commonly in the West at health clubs and colleges. This consists primarily of focusing attention on the breath and gentle stretches, says Barbara Lang of the Duke University Center for Living.

The greatest and most quickly realized medical benefits seem to derive from the profound calming effect that yoga produces in the mind and body, Dr. Brownstein says. This breaks the debilitating stress cycle, he says. It does this in four ways.

• Through properly and positively aligning body posture through specific positions (known as poses) and placing mental focus on the efforts

• Through slowing, relaxing, and deepening breathing

• Through directing attention inward, peacefully, meditatively

• Through stretching and limbering muscles gently and increasing circulation

A typical hatha yoga class is programmed to take each participant’s body through a full range of motion, stretching and strengthening each joint according to its capacity. Regular practice has been shown to ease pain for arthritis sufferers, says Dr. Brownstein. It does this by increasing flexibility – a benefit every practitioner enjoys, and one that makes us feel better.

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