Yoga News and Research

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Yoga is an ancient system of practices used to balance the mind and body through exercise, meditation (focusing thoughts), and control of breathing and emotions. Yoga is being studied as a way to relieve stress and treat sleep problems in cancer patients.

Yoga holds promise for helping improve anxiety, depression and PTSD

Across the country, health and human service providers have shown a growing interest in using yoga as an option for treating people who experience mental health problems. But a recent study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that while there are some promising benefits to using yoga, there isn't yet enough evidence to support the practice as a standalone solution for improving mental health and well-being.

10 Mar 2016

Adapted yoga feasible, beneficial for adults with stroke or traumatic brain injury

A research team, led by an IU School of Health and Rehabilitation faculty member at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has determined that adapted yoga is both feasible and beneficial for adults with stroke or traumatic brain injury.

23 Feb 2016

How to avoid breast damage when exercising: an interview with Professor Joanna Scurr

The breast itself doesn't contain any muscles and the only 2 supporting structures are the skin and the Cooper’s ligaments. Both of those structures are quite weak mechanically so they're not able to hold the breast in place firmly.

23 Feb 2016

New technology helps physical rehabilitation patients learn movement exercises

CITEC is funding this large-scale research project with 1.6 million Euro and it will run until 2017. During a project presentation the researchers showcased what their system is capable of. Using the example of a squat exercise, they presented the new technology, which will help not only athletes, but also physical rehabilitation patients learn movement exercises and correct their mistakes.

19 Feb 2016

SLU clinical psychologist helps patients battle fears, phobias

Some fear is rational, keeping us appropriately cautious in the face of dangerous animals, hot stoves and contagions that could make us ill. But rational caution can turn to irrational panic about imagined terrors that are unlikely to occur or cause much actual damage if they did.

31 Jan 2016

Regular practice of Transcendental Meditation benefits active-duty service members

Regular practice of Transcendental Meditation enables some active duty service members battling post-traumatic stress disorder to reduce or even eliminate their psychotropic medication and get better control of their often-debilitating symptoms, researchers report in the journal Military Medicine.

12 Jan 2016

Head-down yoga positions fatal for glaucoma patients

Glaucoma patients may experience increased eye pressure as the result of performing several different head-down positions while practicing yoga, according to a new study published by researchers at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai in the journal PLOS ONE.

11 Jan 2016

Commercialization of health and beauty can lead to Angelina Jolie syndrome

The politicization and commercialization of health issues in today's Western culture have led to growing healthism -- a peremptory idea of self-preserving behaviour. This approach criticizes everything that fails to fit into the glamorous standards of a beautiful, young and slim body.

13 Dec 2015

Tips to help people living with diabetes survive the holiday season

The holidays are a time to gather with family and friends. It's also a season to indulge in all of your favorite holiday foods and drink. For people living with diabetes, keeping blood sugars under control is often a challenge, but the holiday season can bring additional hurdles.

22 Nov 2015

Barefoot activities can improve balance and posture, prevent common injuries

As your cold-weather footwear makes the seasonal migration from the back of your closet to replace summer's flip flops and bare feet, don't underestimate the benefits of padding around naked from the ankles down.

18 Nov 2015

Protein sensor for proprioception found

Can you touch a finger to the tip of your nose with your eyes closed? Most of us can, thanks to a sense called proprioception, which tells us where our body parts are relative to each other and our environment. Not surprisingly, this sense is essential for normal movement and balance—walking, for instance.

10 Nov 2015

Multicenter trial compares popular treatments for menopause-related vaginal symptoms

Hot flashes. Night sweats. These are the most common - or at least the most commonly talked about - symptoms of menopause. But one reality of The Change for many women is less discussed yet no less important: problems with vaginal health and sexual function.

6 Nov 2015

Yoga exercise as effective as traditional pulmonary rehab in improving pulmonary function in COPD patients

Researchers from the Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, studied the effects of yoga as a form of pulmonary rehabilitation on markers of inflammation in the body.

20 Oct 2015

Dan's House of Hope selected to receive ASTRO's 2015 Survivor Circle grant

The American Society for Radiation Oncology has selected a Houston-based cancer patient support group, Dan's House of Hope, to receive ASTRO's 2015 Survivor Circle grant. The organization will receive $8,500 to recognize its efforts and provide direct support for the organization's work assisting cancer patients and their families.

8 Oct 2015

Researchers find way to make social media more effective for improving exercise habits in people

Can the Web make people more fit? It's a question hot on the minds of everyone from health insurers to gym owners to public health officials. Although millions of dollars a year are being spent designing promotional ads and social media campaigns, they clearly aren't working: more than 43 percent of Americans get insufficient levels of daily exercise, and nearly a third are obese.

7 Oct 2015

NAMS panel provides recommendations to help women manage menopause-associated vasomotor symptoms

Some three-quarters of North American women have menopausal hot flashes, but many cannot use hormones for medical reasons or choose not to. Numerous products and techniques are promoted for hot flashes, but do they work, and are they safe? To answer these questions, a North American Menopause Society panel of experts weighed the evidence and made recommendations in a position statement, "Nonhormonal management of menopause-associated vasomotor symptoms," published online today in the Society's journal, Menopause.

23 Sep 2015

Yoga improves physical, mental wellbeing of people living with common forms of arthritis

A randomized trial of people with two common forms of arthritis has found that yoga can be safe and effective for people with arthritis. Johns Hopkins researchers report that 8 weeks of yoga classes improved the physical and mental wellbeing of people with two common forms of arthritis, knee osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

16 Sep 2015

Physical exercises before and during pregnancy effective in reducing low back, pelvic pain

Pregnancy changes a woman's body in different ways, including the muscles, ligaments, bones, and joints that make up the musculoskeletal system.

4 Sep 2015

Journal articles on yoga therapy increase 3-fold in last 10 years

During the last 10 years, the number of articles in peer-reviewed journals worldwide about clinical trials of yoga therapy to alleviate disease-related symptoms increased 3-fold. This large-scale analysis of published research studies spanning 46 years, 29 countries, and more than 28,000 study participants is published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

18 Aug 2015

Hormones play dual role in unethical behavior

Hormones play a two-part role in encouraging and reinforcing cheating and other unethical behavior, according to research from Harvard University and The University of Texas at Austin.

29 Jul 2015