Happy New Year Friends! I hope 2025 is starting out on a positive note. For many the new year brings exciting events and for others maybe not so much. Wherever you are in your journey the MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that YOU ARE A PRIORITY.
We hear it every new year…”new year new you”. While it sounds so cliché there is absolute truth to it. If you didn’t have the 2024 you would’ve liked for yourself, then now is your chance to do better. You can’t do any better than taking care of yourself because when you do this you are then a benefit to everyone around you.
Whether you’re 20, 30 or 60 you deserve to be the best you can be. I believe in you. If I didn’t I wouldn’t stay so committed to writing these blogs and offering helpful information and encouragement. You’ve got this!
Many of us struggle with health issues, mental and/or physical. Some days it’s just hard to tear the covers off and get out of bed. I know, I’m there now and there will be many days like this for me because of my ailments. You think only modern medicine/doctors can heal you so you spend time and money trying to figure it all out. But what if you could use modern medicine/doctors for the urgent type ailments and do another form of medicine that is guaranteed to help you heal, mentally AND physically….Yoga.
Yoga and modern medicine can be used together to treat a variety of health conditions, and each has its own benefits and risks:
Yoga is a harmonizing therapy that can help with a range of health issues such as anxiety, stress, and arthritis. Yoga is a holistic approach that can improve physical, mental, and spiritual health. It can help with your mood, and its effects can last longer than medication. Yoga also helps with inflammation and heart health. It can improve cognitive skills like memory and learning and help counteract age-related declines. The risk of injury from yoga is lower than other physical activities, and serious injuries are rare.
Modern medicine focuses on the body and treating acute illnesses and emergencies. Modern medicine uses drugs to treat conditions, and there are risks associated with taking any medication, including allergic reactions, side effects, and overmedication.
Statistics have shown that patients who suffer with non-suicidal depression that choose yoga achieved significant therapeutic effects and perhaps better than conventional drugs over 3 months of treatment.
So, what is medical yoga therapy?
According to the National Institute of Health, "medical yoga is defined as “the use of yoga practices for the prevention and treatment of medical conditions.”
Yoga clearly has therapeutic benefits when it comes to helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and a multitude of other mental illnesses. In many cases, a regular yoga practice can end those debilitating issues completely.
The physical side effects of yoga are what truly makes this ancient practice a “modern miracle” for patients suffering from various medical conditions.
Studies show that medical yoga therapy improves and helps control glucose levels, musculoskeletal ailments, and helps keep the cardiovascular system in check. Medical therapy yoga includes all the aspects of yoga that one may expect from any other yoga practice: asanas, breath work, meditation.
Yoga doesn’t just treat and prevent illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, menstrual disorders, heart disease, and hormone imbalances. It helps people create a state of well-being, where they can understand the underlying cause of their conditions. When they can understand it themselves, they are more capable of being proactive in preventing the recurrence of their illness or the development of new ones. This is huge in the world of modern medicine!
Medical yoga therapy is holistic and an individualized approach to medicine. This therapy doesn’t just include the practice of yoga, breathwork and meditation, but better yet involves a person/patient’s family, work environment, support network, and culture in the treatment plan.
Yoga alone may not be the best prescription; It’s up to a person’s doctor to decide if other treatments are necessary in combination with medical yoga therapy.
Please do not misinterpret what I’m sharing with you in this blog today. I am not recommending you abandon your doctor’s treatment plan without having a conversation first. Together you can discuss a plan for you, and you should always advocate for yourself when able.
Let’s be real….in the medical world it’s not the 1st choice, prescribing yoga over pills, but the more we speak up for ourselves and share the benefits of what yoga is doing for us, the more hopeful for our future with the medical profession.
Some may ask, “How can something as simple as yoga actually cure and prevent physical medical problems?” Here are some conditions yoga can help with:
Diabetes - Yoga reduces fasting insulin levels, which normalizes the insulin-to-glucose ratio. It also increases circulation, which improves nerve damage caused by the disease.
Hypertension - The various breathing techniques practiced in yoga, along with meditation, alleviates stress, tension, and physical pain in various areas of the body, all of which can be a primary cause of high blood pressure.
Heart disease - Yoga is a useful lifestyle intervention for people who suffer from high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, and helps decrease waist circumference.
Arthritis - The improved strength and flexibility that are associated with yoga also help relieve symptoms of arthritis and chronic back pain, knee pain, and neck pain.
There are many medical conditions that are improved by a consistent yoga practice, but the above illnesses are especially receptive to medical yoga therapy.
On top of that, yoga is an exercise that literally anyone can do!
I know I’ve said it many times before, but I can’t repeat it enough… Yoga is good for everyone, whether you’re practicing for medical reasons or not. Any size, shape, or age.
Throughout your day, your body is responding to the outside stimuli it experiences, whether you realize it or not. Stress, an unhealthy diet, pain (physical, mental, or emotional), disease, illness stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, the “fight or flight” mode your body has to protect itself against all the bad things it encounters.
When one practices yoga, the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” system) is activated, lowering blood pressure, releasing endorphins. Your blood vessels dilate, which means better circulation, and more nutrients to your organs.
Here are some other benefits of a regular yoga practice:
Increased release of hormones such as GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, all hormones that prevent and cure depression and anxiety.
Increased levels of melatonin, the naturally occurring chemical in your body that helps you sleep
Increased levels of oxytocin, the chemical in your body that helps you feel connected, feel seen and heard.
Increased levels of leptin and adiponectin, chemicals that work to alleviate inflammation in the body.
Yoga means better health. Better immunity.
There are no bad side effects, like you may have with prescription or OTC medications.
The science is there. Yoga can actually save lives!
For those of us over the age of 50, science proves yoga increases our lifespan. How amazing is it that yoga can play such a significant role in our wellbeing and longevity?!
“According to the National Institute of Health, studies show that regular yoga practice stabilizes, and even lengthens, telomeres - small, repetitive chromosomal sequences found at the end of chromosomes that protect the chromosome from dying. They prevent cell death. The older we get, the shorter the telomeres get. The structural integrity of our chromosomes decreases. This process is one of the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, macular degeneration, cardiovascular disease, and stroke, amongst others.”
Here at DERTY Yoga we 1000% believe in your health journey and helping you to be the best and strongest you can be no matter what you are dealing with. We have an awesome group of yoga instructors that care about you and offer an array of classes to fit wherever you are in your yoga journey. The benefits of yoga go so far beyond the poses. Trust me!
Can’t wait to see you on the mat!
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