Tuesday, February 04, 2003


health & healing

you often hear from yoga teachers that yoga and meditation can be healing. well, apparently, it's quite true.

drs. richard davidson of the university of wisconsin's neuroscience lab and jon kabat-zinn of the mass. medical university in worcester are close to publishing a study showing that those who use buddhist mindfulness meditation (vipassana) techniques while in yoga poses and in seated meditation really do boost the number of antibodies in their immune systems.

according to the report in the new york times, (log your bad self in) ". . . . mindfulness [meditation] seemed to improve the robustness of their immune systems, as gauged by the amount of flu antibodies in their blood after receiving a flu shot. . .the mindfulness training focuses on learning to monitor the continuing sensations and thoughts more closely, both in sitting meditation and in activities like yoga exercises." (emphasis added.)

davidson noted that other studies had suggested that those practicing meditation also had milder symptoms after they had already caught the flu, and were sick for less time.

the first time i ever heard a yoga teacher discuss the healing aspects of yoga, i have to say i was skeptical. and so i asked the teacher, sebastian white, how this could possibly be.

at that time he told me that concentrating on proper breathing in yoga sent helpful brain signals to the glands that helped control the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn helps control the immune system.

i must say i greeted this explanation with a raised eyebrow. but the study above makes it seem that he was actually 100% correct. . .

posted by fortune | 5:06 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments