Yoga May Have Positive Effects On Major Psychiatric Disorders

Mind, Brain, Neurology, and Yoga

Editor's Note:  The study and studies referenced in the article below review the meaningful contributions of yoga postures in assuaging human ails, whether physical or psychic, neurological, physiological, and psychological.  In North America and other places around the world, the term "yoga" nearly always refers solely to physical postures [asanas], a portion of a more whole arena yogic practice presents.  

All too often the narrow attention upon the physical postures of yoga are approached calisthenically, not with the true body/mind/soulful integration properly practicing yoga imbues in practitioners.  The comprehensive wholeness yoga and tantra contribute to our pursuit of happiness and infinity in human life will be actualized upon contemporary allopathy's relinquishment of its imperial conceits of culture and intellect.  

Even the pineal gland was considered inert matter in humans, until a few operating within allopathy awakened to unrecognized potentialities after large numbers of South Asians and others around the world harbinged its essential involvement in human wellbeing, conveying "We have been using and optimizing the pineal gland for thousands of years, we know it works!", after which money-motivated allopaths researched it further, acknowledging its functionality in the late 1960s, after a couple of pharmaceutical companies derived patents from its research.  

The pineal gland is the kingpin of all glands affecting our wellbeing, in every realm of life, well known by yogis for thousands of years.  

Psychological, psychic, psycho-transpersonal, and psycho-social reframing are essentialities in yogic practice and integral to the very intent of practicing yoga, tantra, and have been for thousands of years.  We welcome allopathy's explorations, and confirmations, of the myriad positive influences of the broad spectrum of yogic practices and the human potentialities these practices affect, while true and ethical discoveries and confirmations germane to human excellence and evolution should be led by ethical practitioners who have already experienced the substantially positive influences of yoga, of tantra, and who will preserve the ethical application of such discoveries and potential inventions for a healthier society for all life on Earth and beyond.  

Guest article

Yoga May Have Positive Effects On Major Psychiatric Disorders, Including Depression, Schizophrenia, ADHD And Sleep Complaints

Yoga has positive effects on mild depression and sleep complaints, even in the absence of drug treatments, and improves symptoms associated with schizophrenia and ADHD in patients on medication, according to a systematic review of the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders.  

Published in the open-access journal,Frontiers in Psychiatry, the review of more than one hundred studies focusing on 16 high-quality controlled studies looked at the effects of yoga on depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, sleep complaints, eating disorders and cognition problems.  

Yoga in popular culture 

Yoga is a popular exercise and is practiced by 15.8 million adults in the United States alone, according to a survey by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau, and its holistic goal of promoting psychical and mental health is widely held in popular belief.  

"However, yoga has become such a cultural phenomenon that it has become difficult for physicians and patients to differentiate legitimate claims from hype," wrote the authors in their study.  "Our goal was to examine whether the evidence matched the promise." 

Benefits of the exercise were found for all mental health illnesses included in the review, except for eating disorders and cognition problems as the evidence for these was conflicting or lacking.  

Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center, US, and author of the study, explained that the emerging scientific evidence in support of the 5,000 year old Indian practice on psychiatric disorders is "highly promising" and showed that yoga may not only help to improve symptoms, but also may have an ancillary role in the prevention of stress-related mental illnesses.  

The review found evidence from biomarker studies showing that yoga influences key elements of the human body thought to play a role in mental health in similar ways to that of antidepressants and psychotherapy.  One study found that the exercise affects neurotransmitters, inflammation, oxidative stress, lipids, growth factors and second messengers.  

Unmet need among mental health patients 

Depression alone affects more than 350 million people globally and is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  On World Mental Health Day last year, the WHO called for improved access to treatments.  

While there has been an increase in the number of medications available for mental health disorders, many of which can be life saving for patients, there remains "a considerable unmet need," according to Dr. Meera Balasubramaniam, lead author of the study, who is also based at Duke University, US.  

Poor compliance and relapse as well as treatment resistance are growing problems, and medications are expensive and can leave patients with significant side effects.  

The Primary Care study, carried out by WHO, found that 60% of patients were still depressed after a year of being treated with an anti-depressant and a National Institute of Mental Health funded research showed remission in only one-third of patients.  

"The search for improved treatments, including non-drug based, to meet the holistic needs of patients is of paramount importance and we call for more research into yoga as a global priority," said Doraiswamy.  "If the promise of yoga on mental health was found in a drug, it would be the best selling medication world-wide," he added.  

There are many benefits associated with practicing yoga for improving mental health, including, fewer side effects, relatively low cost, generally good access and the improvement of physical fitness, added the authors.  

The authors also note that while the results are promising, the findings should be viewed as preliminary because all studies of yoga to date have consisted of small samples, and more rigorous research will be needed before the exercise can be applied to help patients with mental health disorders. 

Article Information: 
Yoga on our Minds: A Systematic Review of Yoga for Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Authors: Meera Balasubramaniam, Shirley Telles and P. Murali Doraiswamy. 
Front. Psychiatry DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00117 
URL:http://www.frontiersin.org/Affective_Disorders_and_Psychosomatic_Research/10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00117/abstract
Frontiers

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Out of Body Experiences at Will: University Researchers Explore Woman's Brain

Guest article

Mind, Brain, Neurology, and Yoga

Woman who can project from body at will is studied by University of Ottawa research team, providing evidence of extraordinary brain activity during astral projections.

By Sarah Griffiths

Researchers at the University of Ottawa, Canada, studied the brain activity of a student who can drift outside her own body at will

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for extra-corporeal experiences

They think the experiences could be more common than thought or that people only retain the ability to have them if they practice from childhood

People have long been fascinated by out-of-body experiences - are they just tricks of the mind or do they have some sort of spiritual significance?  

Now new research has shed light on what it terms as 'extra-corporeal experiences' by studying the brain activity of a Canadian woman who claims she can drift outside her own body at will.  

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery (the perception of the sensation of moving) are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it – and that more people might have similar experiences than thought.  

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it. Increased activity was seen in the middle and superior orbitofrontal gyri (A,B,D) the supramarginal gyrus (B) and inferior temporal gyrus (D)

Researchers at the University of Ottawa came across a psychology graduate who admitted she could have voluntary out-of-body experiences before she fell asleep.

The 24-year-old revealed she is able to see herself floating and rotating horizontally in the air above her body and can sometimes watch herself from above while remaining aware of her real body.  

However, as she said she feels no emotions when she has the experiences, the scientists decided to classify her experiences as extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) as strong emotions such as shock, often accompany out-of-body experiences, Popular Science reported.  

Researchers came across a psychology graduate who admitted she could have voluntary out-of-body experiences before she fell asleep. The 24-year-old revealed she is able to see herself floating horizontally in the air above her body, rotating and can sometimes watch herself from above (illustrated)

THE STUDENT’S DESCRIPTION OF HER EXTRA CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE

‘I feel myself moving, or, more accurately, can make myself feel as if I am moving,’ the student told the researchers, who documented her report in their study.  

‘I know perfectly well that I am not actually moving.  There is no duality of body and mind when this happens, not really.  

'In fact, I am hyper-sensitive to my body at that point, because I am concentrating so hard on the sensation of moving.  

‘I am the one moving – me – my body.  For example, if I “spin” for long enough, I get dizzy.  

‘I do not see myself above my body.  Rather, my whole body has moved up.  I feel it as being above where I know it actually is.  

‘I usually also picture myself as moving up in my mind’s eye, but the mind is not substantive.  It does not move unless the body does,’ she said.

Andra Smith and Claude Messier used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to examine the student’s brain and believe she is the first person studied to have an ECE on demand without any brain abnormalities.  

They discovered that the ECE involved a ‘strong deactivation of the visual cortex’.  

But it also ‘activated the left side of several areas associated with kinesthetic imagery’ in the brain, which the scientists think is what cause mental representations of bodily movement.  

While the researchers have acknowledged the rarity of finding someone to study who can have ECEs on demand, they believe that outer-body-experiences could be more common than thought.  

This idea is based on the fact that the student thought that being able to float outside her body was not unusual.

According to the study: ‘The participant described her experience as one she began performing as a child when bored with “sleep time” at preschool.   

She discovered she could elicit the experience of moving above her body and used this as a distraction during the time kids were asked to nap. She continued to perform this experience as she grew up assuming, as mentioned, that “everyone could do it.”’  

The scientists discovered that the extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) involved a 'strong deactivation of the visual cortex' (pictured). A shows the right side and B the left)

‘She appeared surprised that not everyone could experience this,’ the researchers wrote in the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.  

The scientists think there is a ‘possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional.’  

They also theorised that ‘the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice.’  

The scientists think there is a 'possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional.' They also theorised that 'the ability might be present in infancy (illustrated with a stock image) but is lost without regular practice'

This article originally appeared here

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Mindfulness And Yoga Help At-Risk Kids Cope With Stress

Education, Yoga and Youth Development

Guest article

Mindfulness And Yoga Help Kids Cope With Stress In Low-Income, High-Crime Neighborhoods

Stepping outside the perceived yoga “norms” of thin and stretchy folks sipping green smoothies and spouting quotes from a bottomless well of inspiration, somewhere in the middle of high-crime, poverty-level, gang-ridden neighborhoods, school kids stand strong in mountain pose.  Some such kids currently reside in East Palo Alto, CA where they are faced with very real stresses and anxieties that should be beyond their years, but instead take the form of piled on anger, fear and sadness.  For the students of Cesar Chavez Academy, though, a new yoga and mindfulness program may help them cope on the inside with the violence and noise going on outside.  

PBS NewsHour reports on how a Stanford University backed project is bringing yoga and mindfulness practices to Cesar Chavez Academy where middle schoolers, at such a young age, are already showing signs of PTSD just by living their daily lives.  

According to Dr. Victor Carrion, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and head of Early Life Stress Research Program who is overseeing the project at Cesar Chavez Academy, up to 30 percent of children living in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods will show signs of PTSD which can in turn affect and impair their ability to learn.  In fact, there is a link between stress and behavior that actually shows up in the chemicals and activity of the brain.  But Dr. Carrion is hoping to help the kids at Cesar Chavez by providing the tools of  yoga to ease the stress before things go too far.  

Says Michael Fu, a Stanford University medical student involved in the project:

“The principals of mindfulness really try to make you focus on the present moment.  So whether or not you came in this morning experiencing something stressful at home or something bad happened, for you to be able to come into the classroom and really embrace it and embrace the learning, I think it really allows students to reach their potential.”  

While it took a little while to get the kids to be OK with doing poses and breathing in front of everyone else (these are middle schoolers, we’re talking about!), students are showing improvements in their attitude and reactions, which can translate into better learning abilities, and environments, as well as more positive temperments overall.  

“When I get home, I want to play, but [my mother] doesn’t let me because it’s too dark now.  And I get so mad,” says student Brayan Solorio.  ”And then I put my yoga mat that they give me, and I start using it.  The difference is that I’m angry, and then as soon as I use it, I’m not angry no more.  It calms me down.”  

Principal Amika Guillaume echoes young Brayan adding, “If we can get kids to the point that they realize that, oh, I’m getting hotheaded, oh, my adrenaline is flowing, I am not thinking clearly, I need to stop, step back and reassess, then maybe we have a chance.”  

Watch the full PBS NewsHour report.  It’s an inspiring and sobering look at how yoga can make a real difference for current and future generations even in its simplest of forms.  

This article originally appeared here

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