Health aNd Fitness Guide

Yoga can reverse damages caused by metabolic syndrome and generate a more optimistic and happy frame of mind in healthy individuals, according to two recent studies from India and Sweden. Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases like high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. Dr R.P. Agrawal of SP Medical College, Bikaner, studied 101 patients with metabolic syndrome. Half of them participated in raja yoga and transcendental meditation for three months; the rest were in the observation arm. The yoga group had a marked decrease in waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides and an increase in the HDL (good) cholestrol levels, compared to those in the control group. The study was published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.

In a study published in BioMed Central Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Dr Anette Kjellgren from the University of Karlstad, Sweden, and colleagues looked at the benefits of yoga on healthy volunteers, who did breathing exercises as per sudarshan kriya for an hour daily, six days a week for six weeks. The control group relaxed in an armchair for 15 minutes daily. Anxiety, stress, and depression were substantially less, and levels of optimism high in the yoga group when compared to those in the control group.