Your gut, head and heart agree! Studio Yoga on Monday night is the best choice you can make for looking after all of you

Yoga-ering yourself to better gut health? What the science says about how yoga can help with areas of your life you may never have considered …

Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS … is a notoriously difficult problem to treat with notoriously vague diagnosis and advice. It has indications for the low FODMAP diet, maybe probiotics, maybe a gluten free diet, maybe adding fiber – but be careful, not the wrong one, or laxatives even1? … but what if there was a modality showing superior results to these AND allowed you to eat the diet you wanted? Well … this systemic review (if you’re not into research, this style of research is nearly the crème de la crème of research) suggests that the ancient practice of yoga may be your best bet2. This study showed yoga reduced negative bowel symptoms and improved the participants quality of life … if your tummy’s not your strong point, we’ll be seeing you Monday nights 6.30pm ;)

People with complicated mental health, including PTSD and trauma backgrounds, are encouraged to seek therapy and medication advised on by their mental health provider. But what if there was an effective adjunct to this more traditional therapy? A meta-review (if you’re following on, this is the only research style to pip the systematic review of above), suggests that yoga has the potential to both enhance and extend the treatment effect of conventional therapies3. If you’re looking for something to help your mind recover … we’ll be seeing you Monday night.

Finally in other systematic review news … yoga has been shown to reduce both systolic and diastolic pressures within the heart of people who were diagnosed with either pre-hypertension or hypertension AKA high blood pressure4. With high blood pressure potentially being the leading killer in Australia, and a 1/3 of our population suffering with it (and many times, suffering without symptoms), yoga could be just what “the ticker” needs to keep running smoothly!

The studies for yoga are vast and the reasons to do it are many … you know the drill … we’ll see you Monday night!

Lacy, B. E., Chey, W. D., & Lembo, A. J. (2015). New and emerging treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 11(4 Suppl 2), 1.

Schumann, D., Anheyer, D., Lauche, R., Dobos, G., Langhorst, J., & Cramer, H. (2016). Effect of yoga in the therapy of irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 14(12), 1720-1731.

Macy, R. J., Jones, E., Graham, L. M., & Roach, L. (2018). Yoga for trauma and related mental health problems: A meta-review with clinical and service recommendations. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(1), 35-57.

Hagins, M., States, R., Selfe, T., & Innes, K. (2013). Effectiveness of yoga for hypertension: systematic review and meta‐analysis. Evidence‐Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013(1), 649836.