Practice Sudarshan Kriya To Have A Heart Healthy
Yoga and meditation has long since been used to treat health conditions, ranging from digestive and respiratory problems to depression and anxiety. Today, if you practice yoga you can choose from several different schools to suit your physical ability and personal preference.
All types of yoga, however, stress upon the importance of asanas or yoga postures to be performed in combination with deep breathing exercises and meditation. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is a controlled deep breathing exercise taught by the Art of Living School. SKY involves different types of cyclical breathing patterns that vary from slow to rapid.
This asana calms and stimulates the body and mind.
The benefits of a regular practice of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga and Pranayama (SKY and P) are interesting. Scientific research has been conducted on the effects of SKY on people suffering from extreme levels of stress and anxiety, low immunity, high blood pressure and cholesterol. Studies also show that the regular practice of SKY can help reduce depression, relieve symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and improve brain functioning. However, the most dramatic changes have occurred in people suffering from heart disease.
Heart disease is caused by a number of factors. These include reasons such as obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise or other underlying medical conditions. In today’s fast paced world, one of the key contributors of heart disease is high level of stress and anxiety. The increased levels of cortisol or the stress hormone in the body can increase a person’s chance of developing heart disease quite significantly. In such cases, the regular practice of SKY can induce dramatic falls in cortisol levels in the body. A recent study showed that regular practitioners of SKY have significantly lower levels of blood cortisol levels than people who do not practice this form of yoga or even people who are beginners to the practice. This indicates that SKY practitioners suffer from less stress and anxiety and are also more resilient to stress.
Heart patients also tend to have higher LDL cholesterol levels. A study was conducted to test the effect of SKY on the cholesterol levels of people. Results showed that there were major drops in LDL cholesterol levels as well as an increase in HDL or beneficial cholesterol levels of people practicing SKY for 45 days and longer. All these findings suggest that SKY is an effective tool in treating health conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and subsequently heart disease. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga can also help prevent high levels of stress and feelings of anxiety and depression that may exacerbate cardiovascular problems and other health complaints.
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