Scientists show that ancient yoga practices help prevent stress-related diseases, influencing brain and genetic activity.
John Denninger, a researcher at the Benson-Henry Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, shows that so-called mind-body techniques, which also include yoga practices, can activate genes linked to the immune system, reports' Bloomberg '.
The study, which lasted five years, is part of a series of previous research and focuses for the first time on patients with high levels of stress . Based on genomic and neuroimaging technologies, researchers have managed to analyze in more detail the physiological changes that occur in the body when practicing yoga.
"There is a real biological effect, " says Denninger, one of the pioneers in this area. "The processes that occur when you meditate have effects on the whole body, and not just on the brain, " he says.
Thus, meditation practices are enough to improve the genetic expression involved in the metabolism and secretion of insulin, as well as to reduce the genetic expression related to the inflammatory response and stress. Even effects were recorded among newbies, scientists emphasize.
According to Denninger, the results of their studies could lead doctors to rethink the use of alternative methods to cope with certain stress-induced diseases, from hypertension or depression to the aging process.
Meanwhile, Harvard is not the only scientific center where the beneficial effects of yoga are already examined.
In a study published last year, Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn and scientists at the University of California showed that 12 minutes of meditation a day for eight weeks increases the activity of the Telomerase by 43%, which suggests an improvement in stress-induced aging.
Yoga helps to cope with aging
