The Health Benefits of Yoga: Evidence Based Research which clearly demonstrates the remarkable health benefits of Yoga

By Joanna Bertzeletos, 7 January 2018

In this technological age, health care paradoxes abound. Computerisation, designed to facilitate daily life, carries with it a demand to be externally connected to events at all times. In doing so, paradoxically, we become alienated from reflecting personally upon body, mind and spirit. Use of other substances from food binges to illicit drugs or pharmaceuticals can alleviate some of our symptoms, but this approach can also mean that we can carry on as normal with our busy lives, reducing our ability to monitor and focus on our personal health and wellbeing.

Yoga challenges the “busy-ness” of modern day life, providing us with a return to simply being, watching the world around us, cultivating an awareness of the impact of this world upon ourselves and also how our actions impact upon our world. Yoga enables us to reconnect with ourselves and learning to see ourselves, and our reactions to the world around us, from a different perspective. It takes emotional and spiritual strength to reflect inwardly and directly address personal conflicts, anxieties, hopes and fears, and understand how we respond to them. It also takes time to learn how these states of mind impact directly on physical wellbeing, and how we can change this.

At a time when technology, social media, alcohol, drugs, fast food and instant gratification dominate the way we live our lives, it is refreshing that yoga not only persists and more people are seeking yoga to fill the ever increasing void but that researchers are taking the time to explore exactly how this practice can help us.

The evidence collected through research into yoga continues to reveal the health benefits it can have on different aspects of our physical, mental and spiritual health, supporting the case for its use in our own personal healthcare and in the healthcare of our community and planet. Regular yoga practice can increase our awareness about how our body actually feels with all its aches and pains, and helps us restore balance, improves posture, oxygenates the brain, promotes healthy eating habits, cultivates an attitude of peace, helps us to become spiritually conscious, cultivates discipline and improves our overall quality of life.  

The following PDF download explores the mounting evidence based research into the health benefits of yoga by focusing on the following 15 areas which will demonstrate unequivocally that attending a weekly class (minimum) is worth the investment of time and effort.

1.     Improves, flexibility, balance and strength;

2.    Improves breathing;

3.    Promotes positive self-perception;

4.    Promotes healthy eating habits;

5.    Lengthens lifespan and youth;

6.    Sharpens the brain;

7.     Staves off and helps to manage stress, depression and anxiety;

8.    Helps manage chronic pain;

9.    Prevents and manages chronic neck and low-back pain;

10.   Helps with pro-inflammatory diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes;

11.    Helps improve sleep quality;

12.   Helps with osteoporosis and ageing;

13.   Reduces PMS and improves women’s overall health;

14.   Great for pregnancy;

15.   Great for child and adolescent development.