Opt For Yoga Over Medications for Treating Depression

By Sean Davids

Studies have shown that some manner of antidepressant drugs are prescribed to over 20 million individuals in the US annually. However what ought to be the primary cause for concern are the many adverse reactions all too often experienced by those who take these anti-depression drugs. Helpful as they may be for a time, it's been proven that these anti-depression medicines cause various negative reactions which may consist of an unsettled stomach, exhaustion, sleeplessness and libido difficulties. Consequently, a good number of persons are seeking a way of managing depression without medication.

If you'd like to try treating your depression symptoms in a more natural approach to avoid these severe adverse reactions, you might want to consider doing yoga. Yoga and its soothing movements and poses are inclined to significantly boost the brain's alpha waves (linked to relaxation) and theta waves (your unconscious thoughts, emotions and dreams). This discovery is established on a research study that calculated brain waves in advance of a yoga class continuing for two hours, and again subsequent to it.

Because of the increased activity of these brain waves, people tend to have more contact with their subliminal thoughts and emotions. In addition, following a yoga class, alpha wave activity improves in the right temporal area of the brain. Research has demonstrated that folks with depression tend to experience enhanced alpha activity in the left frontal-temporal region, while positive, outgoing folks have more alpha activity on the right side.

Furthermore, when yoga is performed, a sizable reduction in the hormone known as cortisol happens, in addition to an increase in the hormone prolactin. This is believed by many professionals to be the principal factor in causing the anti-depressant outcome of electroshock therapy.

If this all seems a bit too advanced, maybe a less difficult example of how yoga is effective for managing depression may be that it stimulates the brain's motor centers. This causes the blood to flow in the opposite direction of the center of emotional activity; therefore you become more receptive to affirmative situations.

Just doing yoga poses will not be sufficient to control your depression. You also need to include breathing exercises (known as pranayama), meditation, (which might be based on your spiritual beliefs) and a proper diet. These are all crucial facets of the yoga philosophy that will make a difference in your mental health.

Therefore, when you next feel depression taking hold of your mind, you might do well to consider a new prescription for treating depression: yoga. It won't hurt you, and it could potentially help you enormously. - 30309

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