Table of Contents
Introduction
Today, people are suffering more than ever from stressors such as anxiety and depression. Being in a good state of mental health is important for the functioning and well-being of a human. If a person’s mental health is suffering, there could still be a way to heal it. Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice through different positioning’s to relieve a variety of bodily distress. This research paper shows the link between yoga and how it affects a person’s mental health.
Summary of Findings
A study shows that nearly half of US teens suffer from some type of mental issue related to stress. “This problem is accompanied by an unprecedented rise in the rates of child and teen suicide in the United States” (Stephens, 2019). Ina Stephens (2019) also mentions that due to the rise in teen suicide, there are still options for medicine, but because of the unwanted side effects the amount of time it could take, and the fact that it may not even work makes it even more difficult for physicians. A study was done on a 14-year-old female who presented with chronic migraines, ischemic episodes, and anxiety disorder. When a migraine would come on, she would lose sensation in her in her right arm and right leg. She would have them about 2 times a month. Some medications were helping to control them, but were never able to stop them. Her temper was short due to the chronic pain. Yoga was given as an option to help manage the pain and possibly relieve more stress that she had been going through. The study states:
At her sixteen week follow-up appointment, BG had continued to do well with both good control of her migraine headaches and her anxiety. Over the interim period between the two visits, she stated that she felt the “beginning of migraine with a visual scotoma” but that it never developed into a full migraine headache. Her anxiety level is felt to be much improved. She states that she now “knows when she is getting anxious” and is able to “calm herself down with deep breathing”, so that the anxiety does not bother her or “ruin her day.” She continues to work on her medical yoga prescription almost daily and is thinking of signing up for a gentle, restorative yoga class in town (Stephens, 2019).
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“Medical Yoga therapy is an individualized and personal approach to the patient. The beauty of this therapy is that it does not expose one to the potentially negative side effects of medications, and can leave the patient with long-lasting benefits” (Stephens, 2019).
Another study that was done took adult volunteers to compare overall mental health of those that experienced yoga while being compliant and those that were getting usual clinical care. The study started with 145 volunteers, but compliancy was not always great which led to a lot of people dropping out, although the numbers were still a good amount. The yoga classes consisted of yoga poses, deep breathing exercises, self-reflection, and deep relaxation to finish it off.
Our research demonstrated that 24 weeks of yoga practice significantly improved all domains of quality of life: general health, psychological, physical, social, and environmental wellbeing. The evidence regarding the improvement of physical and psychological quality of life of the yoga group participants is in line with the most relevant…and recent…studies in the area (Ponte, et al., 2019).
As part of this study, it is sure to mention that yes there were significant improvements for those that practiced yoga, but there was no significant improvement for those who were only receiving usual clinical care (Ponte, et al., 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, studies show that yoga therapy has the ability to significantly increase mental health and all around well-being. Those receiving usual clinical care were found to have no significant increase in their mental health or well-being. Yoga is beneficial and safe with pure relaxation, overall good well-being, and no side-effects. There still needs to be a good amount of compliancy to maintain a good mental status, but it is possible to relieve stressors such as anxiety and depression through practicing yoga therapy. A risk would be that yoga alone might not fix a ton of medical issues without some sort of medication regimen. Nurses could benefit from this because it serves as a non-pharmacologic method to healing. It might not help, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to try.
References
- Ponte, S. B., Lino, C., Tavares, B., Amaral, B., Bettencourt, A. L., Nunes, T., Silva, C., Mota-Vieira, L. (2019). Yoga in primary health care: A quasi-experimental study to access the effects on quality of life and psychological distress. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice,34, 1-7. doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2018.10.012
- Stephens, I. (2019). Case report: The use of medical yoga for adolescent mental health. Complementary Therapies in Medicine,43, 60-65. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2019.01.006
