Naina_Marbus
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Yoga boosts immune system
Norwegian researchers find a strong and immediate genetic response to yoga practice.
Newly published research from University of Oslo, Norway suggests that a comprehensive yoga program rapidly produces internal changes on a genetic level. The research suggests that previously reported (therapeutic) effects of yoga practices have an integral physiological component at the molecular level, which is initiated immediately during practice.
This latest study confirms earlier findings, links them to the body’s immune system, and suggests this effect maybe instantaneous.
The University of Oslo experiment featured 10 participants who attended a week-long yoga retreat in Germany. For the first two days, participants spent two hours practicing a comprehensive yoga program including yogic postures, yogic breathing exercises, and meditation. For the next two days, they spent that same time period going on anhour-long nature walk and then listening to either jazz or classical music.
Immediately before and after each of the four sessions, the researchers drew blood from each participant. They then isolated and analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which play a key role in the body’s immune system. The researchers found that the nature walk and music-driven relaxation changed the expression of 38 genes in these circulating immune cells. In comparison, the yoga produced changes in 111.
Fourteen genes were affected by both exercises, which suggests “the two regimens, to some degree, affect similar biological processes,” the researchers write. That said, they note that yoga’s impact was far more widespread, which indicates the practice “may have additional effects over exercise plus simple relaxation in inducing health benefits through differential changes at the molecular level.”
So, as far as the immune system is concerned, walking is good — but yoga might be substantially better.
Norwegian researchers find a strong and immediate genetic response to yoga practice.
Newly published research from University of Oslo, Norway suggests that a comprehensive yoga program rapidly produces internal changes on a genetic level. The research suggests that previously reported (therapeutic) effects of yoga practices have an integral physiological component at the molecular level, which is initiated immediately during practice.
This latest study confirms earlier findings, links them to the body’s immune system, and suggests this effect maybe instantaneous.
The University of Oslo experiment featured 10 participants who attended a week-long yoga retreat in Germany. For the first two days, participants spent two hours practicing a comprehensive yoga program including yogic postures, yogic breathing exercises, and meditation. For the next two days, they spent that same time period going on anhour-long nature walk and then listening to either jazz or classical music.
Immediately before and after each of the four sessions, the researchers drew blood from each participant. They then isolated and analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which play a key role in the body’s immune system. The researchers found that the nature walk and music-driven relaxation changed the expression of 38 genes in these circulating immune cells. In comparison, the yoga produced changes in 111.
Fourteen genes were affected by both exercises, which suggests “the two regimens, to some degree, affect similar biological processes,” the researchers write. That said, they note that yoga’s impact was far more widespread, which indicates the practice “may have additional effects over exercise plus simple relaxation in inducing health benefits through differential changes at the molecular level.”
So, as far as the immune system is concerned, walking is good — but yoga might be substantially better.
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