Positive and negative effects of Yoga

Positive and negative effects of Yoga

Yoga is an ancient practice that is performed to bring harmony in mental and physical faculties of the body. It incorporates different types of breathing exercises, poses and techniques of meditation to encourage and lower stress and relaxation. Regular practice of yoga promotes overall wellbeing of a person. It gives clarity, strength, flexibility and many other health benefits to a person. However, a few people have also experienced certain negative side effects, linked to it. Before you plan to incorporate yoga in your lifestyle, it is essential to learn about both sides of it.

Positive and negative effects of Yoga

Positive effects of yoga

Help in reducing stress

Stress has increased a lot in our day to day life. This is giving rise to cases of mental disorders even at a younger age. Incorporation of yoga is one of the natural, cost effective and safe way to deal with it effectively. Yoga has got an ability to reduce stress and relax a person.

Practicing yoga poses helps in reducing the stress hormone named “cortisol” in the body. Performing the treatment for only three months can give you a significant relief from stress, fear, fatigue, depression and anxiety. It enhances sleep quality, fights off depression, and improve social functioning too.

Lower inflammation

Along with enhancing the mental health of a person, practicing yoga even helps in lowering inflammation. Chronic inflammation can result in pro-inflammatory ailments in the body. Some of them being heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Yoga has been scientifically proved to reduce the inflammation levels in a person and keeps one safe from ailments induced due to it.

Improves Cardiovascular Health

Maintaining proper heart health ensures pumping continuous supply of blood to each and every cell of the body. Getting adequate supply of nutrients, keeps your entire body in the best operational state. Yoga assists in improving heart health along with balancing blood pressure and risk factors that are likely to cause heart disease.

Inclusion of appropriate yoga moves stills the mind, calms the heart rate, restores flow of blood in the body to its adequate levels, slows the development of heart disease and improves quality of life. Yoga along with the right diet has seen to be effective in reducing the levels of bad cholesterol in the body. It reduces stress that is considered to be the sole contributor towards developing heart disease in a person.

Promotes overall development

When your internal body is in balanced state, it reflects outside. Yoga is believed to play positive role in enhancing the quality of life of all those who practice it on a regular basis. It relaxes the mind, sharpens focus, improves communication skills, promotes clear thinking, enhances analytical and decision-making abilities in a person. Yoga makes a person look confident, fitter, younger, balanced and impressive. It energizes a person and alleviates their mood.

Negative effects of yoga

Injury

One of the major disadvantages of performing yoga poses is the chances of getting an injury. This is because some of the yoga poses are complicated. A person who doesn’t have flexible body or who has been doing it first time can feel discomfort. Ashtanga is one of those vigorous practices that requires hyper flexibility in performers. People who lack flexibility can even suffer from injuries due to performing complicated moves and stretches.

Complications related to glaucoma:

Glaucoma is regarded as a state wherein excessive pressure applied behind the eye region can arise problems in its functioning. It can cause loss of their eyesight too. There are some of the inversion yoga positions that includes Shoulder Stand, and Headstand, that cause an increase in the complications with this specific eye condition.

Increase in high blood pressure:

Forceful inversion poses and breathing can result in an increase in the blood pressure of a person. If you are having any pre-existing hypertension ailment, then a few specific advanced level yoga practices can adversely impact your health.

Back injury:

There is a forward fold move in Yoga that when performed in an over-aggressive manner can cause irritation in the vulnerable disks present in your back. Disks that are present in the lumbar spine region are impacted by it. Overly rounding your body or attempting to go too far without sufficient warm up can make you experience an acute spinal side effect.

Muscular strain:

An overstretch can result when you do not pay attention to the warning signs shown by your body and go on extending your limitations. Practicing very aggressively without being mindful of the moves and experience can make you prone to injury. To prevent possibilities of side effects, it is advised to always perform it under the supervision of a well-trained yoga teacher.

Alan Behrens

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