Yoga has played a pretty big part of my life the past couple of years. When I got pregnant, I had a tremendous amount of back and hip pain, and I could think of no better way to ease the pain than to stretch for as long as I possibly could. Sometimes it was the only thing that would bring me relief, especially later on in the pregnancy.

What I wasn’t expecting were all of the other benefits that accompanied my pain relief.

Yoga has a way of aligning the body, mind, and spirit that no other practice can compare to in my life. Not even gymnastics, which was my only source of Zen growing up. From relieving anxiety, depression, and headaches, to aiding the body in fighting disease, yoga is an amazing gift from Ancient India.

An article titled “77 Surprising Health Benefits of Yoga” published by NursingDegree.com says, “Yoga practice massages internal organs, thus improving the ability of the body to prevent disease. Additionally, an experienced yoga practitioner becomes better attuned to her body to know at first sign if something isn’t functioning properly, thereby allowing for quicker response to head off disease.”

Yoga also helps you fight off disease by draining your lymph nodes and boosting your immunity, according to an article titled “38 Benefits of Yoga” published by Yoga Journal. The article goes on to say, “When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.”

As if that isn’t enough to make you jump in on a yoga class at this very moment, yoga has also been proven to lower blood sugar, according to an article titled “Yoga for Blood Glucose Control” published by Diabetes Self Management. It also promotes “mindful eating” through meditation which in turn promotes weight loss, according to US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.

Source:

Courtney, Living. – Living naturally, creating awareness, and making things simple. (n.d.). Retrieved from //www.courtneyliving.com/

38 Health Benefits of Yoga | Yoga Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved from //www.yogajournal.com/article/health/count-yoga-38-ways-yoga-keeps-fit/

77 Surprising Health Benefits of Yoga | NursingDegree.net. (n.d.). Retrieved from //www.nursingdegree.net/blog/24/77-surprising-health-benefits-of-yoga/

Development and validation of the mindful eating questionnaire. – PubMed – NCBI. (n.d.). Retrieved from //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19631053