Yoga - 7 Ways It Improves Your Health!

Ayurveda literally translates into “the science of longevity.” It not just looks at treating the symptoms of the patient, but at getting to the root of the issue for a holistic treatment. In addition to various products, yoga is an integral part of maintaining overall health in Ayurveda.

Patrons of yoga would agree that yoga has multiple benefits, not just in treating diseases, but in maintaining the overall health. The following are some of the most obvious benefits of yoga.

1. Weight management: Yoga normalizes body weight by multiple ways including restoring hormonal balance, reducing cortisol levels, improving depression (which can lead to binge eating), etc. Do not worry about calories not being burned during yoga. Yoga is a very good stress reliever and people who are not stressed are rarely obese.
2. Pain control: Whether you have a headache or back pain, knee pain or muscle pain, try specific yogasanas. There are people who would vouch for the fact that they could completely stop their pain killers with effective yoga.
3. Strength: Yoga makes a person strong in addition to improving flexibility. In most forms of exercises, some may give strength, others may give flexibility. But yoga is one of the few approaches, which combines the two. Range of motion of the joints is improved, healing is quicker, and ligaments and muscles are more elastic with yoga.
4. Brain functioning: Yoga improves memory and cognitive functioning. Because meditation and focusing on oneself is such an integral part of yoga, it promotes brain function. It improves memory, clarity of thought, attention span, and helps in decision making.
5. Reduces stress: By improving overall well-being, yoga is one of the best methods for stress management. This in turn leads to reduction of a host of other diseases including hypertension, diabetes, stroke, sleep disorders, etc. There is also a heightened feeling of well-being, reduced depression, better self-esteem, improved motivation, and other effects which improve overall health and happiness quotient.
6. Anti-degenerative effects: The body is in a constant state of degeneration and with age, this is accelerated. What yoga does is to arrest degeneration – be it the muscle mass, the skin tone, or the joint flexibility. It has a whole lot of metabolic benefits including reducing glucose, sodium, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL, and catecholamines. Simultaneously, it helps by increasing HDL cholesterol, hematocrit, hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, white blood cell count, thyroxin, total serum protein, oxytocin, prolactin, and cholinesterase among others.
7. Restores function: For impaired body systems, whether it is nervous or digestive, musculoskeletal or neurologic, yoga does wonders.

There is no restriction on where to do yoga. Unlike gymming, swimming, or cycling, there is no definite set-up required. So, go embrace yoga and see the benefits for yourself. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult an Ayurveda.