Does yoga help relieve back pain, or are we being fooled?

thanks grackle cafe for this one


http://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-globe-and-mail-bc-edition/20170117/282102046372394

YS ED JANUARY 22, 2014, 7:42 AM 

How Inactivity Changes the Brain

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Noel Hendrickson/Getty Images

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PHYS ED

Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.

A number of studies have shown that exercise can remodel the brain by prompting the creation of new brain cells and inducing other changes. Now it appears that inactivity, too, can remodel the brain, according to a notable new report.

The study, which was conducted in rats but likely has implications for people too, the researchers say, found that being sedentary changes the shape of certain neurons in ways that significantly affect not just the brain but the heart as well. The findings may help to explain, in part, why a sedentary lifestyle is so bad for us.

Until about 20 years ago, most scientists believed that the brain’s structure was fixed by adulthood, that you couldn’t create new brain cells, alter the shape of those that existed or in any other way change your mind physically after adolescence.

But in the years since, neurological studies have established that the brain retains plasticity, or the capacity to be reshaped, throughout our lifetimes. Exercise appears to be particularly adept at remodeling the brain, studies showed.

But little has been known about whether inactivity likewise alters the structure of the brain and, if so, what the consequences might be.

So for a study recently published in The Journal of Comparative Neurology, scientists at Wayne State University School of Medicine and other institutions gathered a dozen rats. They settled half of them in cages with running wheels and let the animals run at will. Rats like running, and these animals were soon covering about three miles a day on their wheels.

The other rats were housed in cages without wheels and remained sedentary.

After almost three months of resting or running, the animals were injected with a special dye that colors certain neurons in the brain. In this case, the scientists wanted to mark neurons in the animals’ rostral ventrolateral medulla, an obscure portion of the brain that controls breathing and other unconscious activities central to our existence.

The rostral ventrolateral medulla commands the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which among other things controls blood pressure on a minute-by-minute basis by altering blood-vessel constriction. Although most of the science related to the rostral ventrolateral medulla has been completed using animals, imaging studies in people suggest that we have the same brain region and it functions similarly.

A well-regulated sympathetic nervous system correctly directs blood vessels to widen or contract as needed and blood to flow, so that you can, say, scurry away from a predator or rise from your office chair without fainting. But an overly responsive sympathetic nervous system is problematic, said Patrick Mueller, an associate professor of physiology at Wayne State University who oversaw the new study. Recent science shows that “overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system contributes to cardiovascular disease,” he said, by stimulating blood vessels to constrict too much, too little or too often, leading to high blood pressure and cardiovascular damage.

The sympathetic nervous system will respond erratically and dangerously, scientists theorize, if it is receiving too many and possibly garbled messages from neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla.

And, as it turned out, when the scientists looked inside the brains of their rats after the animals had been active or sedentary for about 12 weeks, they found noticeable differences between the two groups in the shape of some of the neurons in that region of the brain.

Using a computerized digitizing program to recreate the inside of the animals’ brains, the scientists established that the neurons in the brains of the running rats were still shaped much as they had been at the start of the study and were functioning normally.

But many of the neurons in the brains of the sedentary rats had sprouted far more new tentacle-like arms known as branches. Branches connect healthy neurons into the nervous system. But these neurons now had more branches than normal neurons would have, making them more sensitive to stimuli and apt to zap scattershot messages into the nervous system.

In effect, these neurons had changed in ways that made them likely to overstimulate the sympathetic nervous system, potentially increasing blood pressure and contributing to the development of heart disease.

This finding is important because it adds to our understanding of how, at a cellular level, inactivity increases the risk of heart disease, Dr. Mueller said. But even more intriguing, the results underscore that inactivity can change the structure and functioning of the brain, just as activity does.

Of course, rats are not people, and this is a small, short-term study. But already one takeaway is that not moving has wide-ranging physiological effects. In upcoming presentations, Dr. Mueller said, he plans to show slides of the different rat neurons and, echoing the old anti-drug message, point out that “‘this is your brain.’ And this is your brain on the couch.”

FEATURED, FITNESS, PHYS ED, BLOOD PRESSURE, BRAIN, EXERCISE, HEART

reposted from

This is Your Brain on Yoga

BY Kathryn Heagberg ON January 15, 2014

0   

We all know that yoga does wonders for the mind. Even novices of asana, pranayama, and meditation report feeling increased mental stability and clarity during and after practice. Now, thanks to sophisticated brain imaging technologies, neuroscience is proving what teachers and practitioners have known for ages—that yoga and meditation can literally change your brain. But what exactly is going on up there? Take a peek inside—a basic understanding of brain anatomy and function can serve as a handy road map for your inner journey.  

The frontal lobe is the hub of higher cognitive functions—including planning, discriminating, abstract thinking, personality, and behavior. The Bihar School refers to the breathing practice of kapalabhati as “frontal brain purification,” due to the rejuvenating effects it has on this area of the brain.

Known as the seat of conscious functioning, the cerebrum is the largest part of your brain. It’s divided into right and left hemispheres. On the physical level, the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right. On the level of the subtle body, ida nadi (the lunar energy channel) is connected to the right half of the brain, and pingala nadi (the solar energy channel) is connected to the left side of the brain.

The pituitary gland is related to the sixth, or ajna, chakra. Ajna literally means “command center.”

The anterior part of the frontal lobe, the prefrontal cortex, is the most evolved part of the brain and is responsible for positive capacities like concentration, happiness, creativity, and rational thinking. Studies using EEG have shown that meditation strengthens communication between the prefrontal cortex and other areas of the brain.

Roughly the size of a pea, the pituitary gland is the endocrine system’s master gland, producing and releasing hormones that control growth, metabolism, and the function of other hormones. On a more subtle level, the pituitary gland is related to the sixth, or ajna, chakra. Ajna literally means “command center.”

Neurotransmitters serve as the brain’s chemical messengers, relaying information between nerve cells. Neurological disorders are often the result of a neurotransmitter snafu—for instance, low levels of a neuro-transmitter known as GABA are linked to depression and anxiety. Recent studies show an association between regular asana practice and increased GABA levels.

The brain stem, which connects the brain and the spinal cord, plays a crucial role in digestion, heart rate, and diaphragmatic breathing. Neurons found in the brain stem send a nerve impulse to the diaphragm, which causes it to contract, thereby initiating inhalation.

A 2010 study found that subjects who meditated 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala—which is linked to fear and anxiety.

The cerebellum controls balance, muscle coordination, reflexes, and movement. Asana would be impossible without it.

The limbic system is comprised of structures related to memory and emotion, such as the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, and hypothalamus. A 2010 study found that subjects who meditated 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala—which is linked to fear and anxiety—and an increase of gray matter in the hippocampus, which plays a vital role in memory formation.

As the primary visual processing center of the brain, the occipital lobe helps you follow along visually in yoga class. And you can thank the temporal lobe for your ability to process verbal asana cues—it’s responsible for auditory perception.

The parietal lobe is associated with limb movement, understanding speech, and sensing pain. According to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in April 2011, brain scans of this region demonstrated that mindfulness meditation can dramatically reduce sensitivity to pain—even more so than morphine. 

Yoga helps cancer patients in spiritual, physical, emotional ways

reposted from here

DALLAS — Dr. Jaya Juturi prescribes plenty of medications for her cancer patients, but she would be remiss, she says, if she stopped there. Which is why the Dallas oncologist also suggests a treatment not found in any pharmacy: yoga.

"We're supposed to practice a certain way and tell people what's proven to help them," says Juturi, who is on the medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. "If we didn't bring up yoga in the context of emotional or physical distress, we're not doing our job.

"If we said, 'See a counselor and take medicine,' that might be meaningful, but we need to create an empowering long-term strategy that will bring them everlasting results."

The medical field has been "late in catching on to" such complementary treatments, Juturi says. Now data has begun backing up the effectiveness of yoga, and doctors, she says, "are all about data."

Medically proven benefits include these: 

Yoga helps ease stress. Research from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center showed, among other benefits, yoga's ability to regulate the stress hormone cortisol.

Yoga helps cancer patients sleep better. A study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology reported improved sleep quality in cancer survivors and thus, fewer sleep medications needed.

Yoga can help improve quality of life. On its website, the Stanford Cancer Center reports that yoga "as a complementary therapy" has also been shown to relieve various symptoms associated with cancer.

Nancy Scholberg can attest to that. A dozen years after her double mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and breast reconstruction, the Dallas woman relies on yoga to keep at bay the side effects no one told her about.

"You go through this stuff, and a lot of times the side effects don't hit till years later," says Scholberg, 54.

Her toes tingle almost constantly. She doesn't have a lot of use of her thumbs. Physicians constructed her breasts from muscles in her back, leading to "so much scar tissue and so little movement," says Scholberg, an avid runner and walker. "Yoga helped with stretching and making me feel so much better."

Her one regret? That she didn't practice yoga while undergoing treatment. No one thought about it then, she says.

"Yoga is all about mind, spirit and body. When you're going through chemo, it's such a traumatic time. Your body changes. You lose your hair. What yoga does is bring me to a place of peacefulness a person going through that needs."

Plus, yoga helps patients deal with the stress of recurrence, Juturi says.

At Dallas Yoga Center, owner and director David Sunshine says clients at all stages of cancer ask about yoga.

"I tend to tell people that yoga doesn't necessarily heal cancer, but it is scientifically proven to help in many ways getting through the process of recovery," Sunshine says. "It's about making the body a safe place to feel comfortable and return home to, so one is able to soften and relax and let go of a lot of the stressors and feel normal once again."

Peace of mind is the first phrase that comes to mind when Jenny Parum, Scholberg's instructor and owner of the newly opened Yoga Movement studio, names the benefits of yoga for people dealing with cancer.

"It's the mental aspect," Parum says, "the healing that's necessary in the mind. The focus and the release are the main aspects. You have to nurture yourself on a completely different level."

She credits yoga with turning her own life around after her doctors diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis at age 19, so she understands its transformative power.

Cancer is a fearful time for people, she says. Yoga is all about "getting them to a place where they feel sure of themselves, developing internal strength, keeping their bodies active and moving."

Scholberg, who stopped running marathons after undergoing knee surgery, decided to try yoga when her company offered classes twice a week.

"Because of my mentality, I really like the physical challenges," she says. "It's still hard for me, and I've been doing it almost four years."

Parum has taught her to modify certain poses that she either can't do or are too painful because of her chemotherapy. Some days, for instance, her fingers and hands hurt.

"So instead of spreading them on the mat, I put them in a fist. Jenny knows the limitations I have, and if something is hard for me, she'll remind me, 'Do it this way.'"

The breathing and meditation inherent to yoga help strengthen muscles, says Bonnie Lucio. She's a rehab supervisor and physical therapist for Baylor's rehabilitation outpatient oncology clinic, which has free yoga classes for cancer patients three Fridays a month.

"Yoga can help alleviate symptoms of pain, insomnia, fatigue," says Lucio, who recommends it to all her patients. "Cancer-related fatigue is really big. Yoga is also good for flexibility and balance, plus it helps psychological health and reduces anxiety and depression."

It helps people escape from what they're dealing with, says Leslie Storms. The registered nurse, yoga instructor and former family therapist used to teach a yoga class in Plano, Texas, to cancer survivors, their families and caregivers.

"For a moment, they're focusing and thinking about something that's not the illness," Storms says. "It's a moment of freedom from the mind, from their 'oh-I'm-sick' story and getting to focus on their breathing and their intention. To me, that's the sweetness of someone struggling with that."

Yoga is empowering, she says, a notion that comes up frequently with those who work with yoga practitioners who have cancer.

"It's seeing how people can overcome limitations of the mind and what their doctor told them, limitations of what society tells them and what their illness tells them."

Jennifer Trimmer, 51, credits various aspects of yoga with helping her deal with her breast cancer — the diagnosis, the lumpectomy and the radiation she had almost eight years ago.

"It's the Zen experience you have in the class, the camaraderie, the community you have with fellow yogis," she says. "The breathing techniques taught me to step back and look at it as what it really is. There's so much more to life than whatever is causing stress."

Juturi, who takes various yoga classes herself, says people don't leave those feelings on the mat after class or their yoga tape ends.

"It takes them from the mode of 'I'm very vulnerable; I have cancer,' to 'I feel empowered; this is what I can do.'"

——

READY TO START?

If you have cancer and want to try yoga, here are some suggestions from the experts.

Consider yoga a complementary therapy, used in addition to medications.

Get medical approval, says Dr. Jaya Juturi. Your doctor can tell you what precautions to take.

Ask around about finding a class. Juturi tends to recommend those that are more about poses than cardio workouts. "I'm not saying that's bad," she says, "but we're doing it for the mind, body and spiritual benefits." The hospital or clinic where you're treated may offer some.

Tell your instructor you have cancer, says David Sunshine of Dallas Yoga Center. "That way, the teacher can adapt accordingly and give proper variations."

Yoga in menopause may help insomnia—but not hot flashes

reposted from:
http://www.grouphealthresearch.org/news-and-events/newsrel/2013/130927.html

September 27, 2013

Yoga in menopause may help insomnia—but not hot flashes

Group Health researchers and patients in multisite randomized controlled trial

• Study link: Efficacy of yoga for vasomotor symptoms: a randomized controlled trial

Seattle, WA—Taking a 12-week yoga class and practicing at home was linked to less insomnia—but not to fewer or less bothersome hot flashes or night sweats. The link between yoga and better sleep was the only statistically significant finding in this MsFLASH (Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health) Network randomized controlled trial.

“Many women suffer from insomnia during menopause, and it’s good to know that yoga may help them,” said lead author Katherine Newton, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. She e-published these findings in Menopause, ahead of print.

“Hormone therapy is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for hot flashes and night sweats,” Dr. Newton said, “and fewer women are opting for hormone therapy these days.” That’s why MsFLASH tried to see whether three more “natural” approaches—yoga, exercise, or fish oil—might help ease these menopause symptoms. The study assigned 249 healthy, previously sedentary women at multiple sites, including Group Health, to do yoga, a moderate aerobic exercise program, or neither—and to take an omega-3 fatty acid supplement or a placebo.

Exercise seemed linked to slightly improved sleep and less insomnia and depression, and yoga also was linked to better sleep quality and less depression—but these effects were not statistically significant. The omega-3 supplement was not linked to any improvement in hot flashes, night sweats, sleep, or mood.

S. Reed,
MD, MPH


K. Sherman,
PhD


L. LaCroix,
PhD Dr. Newton’s coauthors were Susan D. Reed, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington (UW), who is an affiliate investigator at Group Health Research Institute; Karen J. Sherman, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute; Andrea Z. LaCroix, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute who is also at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Katherine A. Guthrie, PhD, Garnet L. Anderson, PhD, Joseph C. Larson, MS, and Julie R. Hunt, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Cathryn Booth-LaForce, PhD, of the UW; Bette Caan, DrPH, and Barbara Sternfeld, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Medical Program of Northern California, in Oakland; Janet S. Carpenter, PhD, RN, and Lee A. Learman, MD, PhD, of Indiana University; Ellen W. Freeman, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania; Lee S. Cohen, MD, and Hadine Joffe, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital; and Kristine E. Ensrud, MD, MPH, Veterans Affairs, the University of Minnesota, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a cooperative agreement issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Office of Research on Women’s Health, and grants U01AG032656, U01AG032659, U01AG032669, U01AG032682, U01AG032699, and U01AG032700 from the NIA. At Indiana University, the project was partly funded by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, grant UL1RR02571 from the NIH, National Center for Research Resources, and Clinical and Translational Sciences Award.

Group Health Research Institute
Group Health Research Institute does practical research that helps people like you and your family stay healthy. The Institute is the research arm of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative coordinates health care and coverage. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.