How Yoga Might Relieve Stress-Linked Ailments: Scientific American Podcast. Yoga and relaxation practices have been around for thousands of years. And modern research suggests that yoga could have a very real impact on many stress-related illnesses, including anxiety, depression and heart disease. And here's another reason to be down with downward-facing dog. Stress can make symptoms of chronic pain and depression worse. But yoga might be able to help, in part by stimulating the cranial nerve and an important neurotransmitter called GABA.
Previous research had found that people who did yoga for 12 weeks had lower anxiety and reduced chronic pain than those who went for walks or had standard medical care alone. The researchers are now testing just how well yoga, combined with conventional treatments, can actually improve symptoms of real medical and psychological conditions, including epilepsy, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. —Katherine Harmon [The above text is a transcript of this podcast.] Health. Buddhist Studies WWW VL. Est.: 5 Sep 1994. Last updated: 18 Aug 2016. Edited by: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek (The Australian National University, Canberra, AU), Prof. Joe Bransford Wilson (U. of North Carolina at Wilmington, US) and Privat-Dozent Jerome Ducor (Ethnographic Museum, Geneva, CH) in association with Adrian Hale, Barry Kapke, Murray Kessell, and Peter Schlenker (in US, UK, DE and AU).
BuddhaNet - Worldwide Buddhist Information and Education Network. Zen Mountain Monastery. Zencast.org. The Divine Life Society. Yasodhara Ashram yoga retreat and study centre. Radha yoga center Spokane.