Say Om: Doing Yoga May Reduce Inflammation in the Body
Photo by lululemon athletica
I always knew there was a good, scientific reason I should get back into yoga. Not just because it’s a darn good workout that’ll make you sweat and shake. Not because it stretches out too-tight muscles. And not because it makes you lean and lithe like Gwyneth Paltrow. Those don’t hurt.
But there’s another incentive. A study published in the most recent issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that regular yoga practice may reduce blood levels of a compound that causes inflammation. Let me back up…
IL-6 (or cytokine interleukin-6 if you really want to get specific) is found in the body as a response to inflammation. It’s been linked in previous studies to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and other age-related diseases. In the current study, the researchers measured the levels of this compound in the blood of 50 yoga gurus and novices.
Blood levels of IL-6 were measured after participants experienced a stressful event then either did some yoga poses or walked on a treadmill. The findings were pretty interesting: Novices had levels of IL-6 that were more than 40 percent higher than the experts. Which means those who had practiced yoga for some time went into the study with lower levels of inflammation. What’s more, the researchers say expert yogis were better able to limit their body’s response to stress than novices were.
The researchers don’t know exactly what about yoga lowers this inflammatory response, but they say it’s an important discovery since inflammation plays a major role in disease. One explanation: “The stretching and exercise that comes with yoga actually increases a person’s flexibility and that, in turn, allows relaxation which can lower stress,” says William Malarkey, MD, a professor in internal medicine at Ohio State University and one of the study’s authors.
“Part of the problem with sorting out exactly what makes yoga effective in reducing stress is that if you try to break it down into its components, like the movements or the breathing, it’s hard to say what particular thing is causing the effect,” says study co-author Lisa Christian, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Ohio State University and a yoga instructor.
photo by myyogaonline
It’s been a while since I actually did a full-on yoga workout. Back in the day—when my knees didn’t go crunch, pop, ouch during exercise—I took yoga a couple times a week. I even sweated through Bikram yoga (for someone as chronically cold as me, working out in a 100-degree room isn’t so bad). I loved the way it made my body feel: strong, stretchy, and powerful. And I loved the way it built muscle.
Now I’m too nervous about possibly hurting my knees to do a full yoga class, though I’ll do some PT-approved poses now and then. Of course, as my knees are getting stronger, I’m feeling the yoga itch once again. I’d spring for a private lesson so that I can be sure the poses are all safe for injured knees, but I’m not made of money. Drat. I think I’ll have to hold off on the whole yoga thing until my knees are really healed.
Do you do yoga? Do you supplement running or biking (or some other workout) with yoga—or do you stick to yoga alone?
14 comments
Interesting information. I do some yoga, but not as much as I’d like or as I use to do. Otherwise I do a little of everything else.
[Reply]
Great info! Thanks for sharing! I LOVE yoga. I need to make time to do more!
[Reply]
salut! this is good to know!
when i did yoga, I kinda thought it was bullshit. but after taking a few months off, i realize that i miss it….and i’m much less flexible, more tense. this is another reason to start again.
[Reply]
Tracey Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Paris Food Blague–Before I did yoga, I thought it was a bunch of crap, too. But after my first class I couldn’t deny that it was hard!
[Reply]
I love yoga. It’s definitely a natural stress reliever. I do about ten minutes every morning, and then typically 2-3 longer sessions each week. Yoga’s actually one of the best exercises for your knee. It’s gentle on your body and you can always take modified poses. Integral yoga does a lot of forward/backward bending that is gentle on then knees.
[Reply]
Tracey Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:35 am
FoodFitnessFreshair: I’ll have to do some research into integral yoga. If it’s gentle on the knees, I’m all for it! Thanks for the tip.
[Reply]
I do not do much yoga as my attention span is short and sweet and I’d rather do anything but with an hour of exercise.
However, I go through stages where I’ll practice yoga….and it did my body good.
[Reply]
I do yoga regularly and it has helped my knee enormously! But I can’t just do yoga so I run, walk, and bike. I also do strength training. But I love them all!
Your site is so nice…love how clean it looks and you have such great pictures all the time!
[Reply]
Tracey Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Ameena, thanks for the kind words. I get most of my images from Flickr (though I’m savin’ pennies to buy a nice digital camera). What type of yoga do you do? If it’s helped your knee, I’m interested!!
[Reply]
interesting! i really want to get back in to yoga, i was a huge fan of bikram but haven’t been in forever.
[Reply]
fantastic post — thank you! I’m just getting started with yoga and this was just what I needed
[Reply]
I’m not much of a yogi but I’m planning on getting into it during the summer months. Thanks for all the info on it!
[Reply]
I need to do yoga! I am a runner and I know it would be great for my flexibilty and hip flexors. I am just so ADD that it is hard for me to turn off my brain and concentrate. But my goal is to get better about it!
[Reply]
Tracey Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Kelly, I was never so great at the whole turning off my mind thing, either. But that’s OK with me. I still got a killer workout from it!
[Reply]
Leave a Comment