Yoga and stress relief – is it all in the mind?
Title: Effect of 12 weeks of yoga training on the somatization, psychological symptoms, and stress-related biomarkers of healthy women
Authors: Yoshihara K, Hiramoto T, Oka T, Kubo C & Sudo N.
Journal: BioPsychoSocial Medicine
Date: 2014
Impact Factor: 0.78
Web-link
Why they did it?
Yoga as a form of recreation has been around for over 2,500 years. Grounded in Eastern Buddhist and Hindu philosophises, there are a wide variety of schools and practices of yoga, each with its own complex set of goals and methodologies. However, participation in yoga class generally involves performing a series of physical postures with the purpose of improving physical, mental, and spiritual health and wellbeing. There is emerging evidence suggesting that yoga can improve functional health, with studies reporting increases in flexibility, balance and declines in musculoskeletal pain and risk of falls and fractures. A commonly reported positive outcome associated with yoga participation is stress reduction, thought to be due to the practice of mediation and controlled breathing. However, when compared to studies assessing function health, few studies have examined the effect of yoga training on stress-related outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of 12 weeks of yoga training on stress-related psychological symptoms and biomarkers.
How they did it?
A total of 24 healthy women who had no experience with yoga were recruited for the study.
The participants were requested to attend at least 10 of 12 weekly yoga sessions (which were conducted by a qualified instructor) and to practice on their own at home at least twice a week for over 30 minutes during this 12-week period. A complete list of yoga postures can be found at the web link. Pre-and-post training, participants completed several previously validated questionaries to assess self-reported stress levels and mood states. Participants also provided a urine sample which was assessed for stress-related biomarkers, such as cortisol pre-and-post yoga training. Note that this study did not have a comparison/control group, the limitations of which are discussed below.
What they found?
When examining the result from the data collected on self-reported data, yoga training had significant positive effects on stress-related psychological factors such as perceptions of tension-anxiety, depression, anger-hostility and fatigue. However, the results showed no significant changes in stress-related biomarkers.
Ok, what does this mean to me?
A meaningful interpretation of the main outcomes of this study is limited by a lack of comparison group. For example, it is not possible to exclude a ‘placebo effect’ of the yoga training. Perhaps, a better approach may have been to give another group a simple set of ‘westernized’ static stretches (e.g. 1min hamstring, calf stretches etc.) and compared self-reported and biomarker-related stress levels between groups. Nevertheless, yoga training did reduce reported stress levels in participants. Clients wishing to reduce stress levels may wish to adopt yoga training into their current training program.
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