Effects of 3 months intensified Iyengar yoga on emotional and physical well‐being in women with mental distress

Yoga and emotion regulation: A review of primary psychological outcomes and their physiological correlates.

“…Another potential mechanism that mediates the effects of yoga on positive functioning is the reduction of anxiety and regulation of autonomic activity (Chaya & Nagendra, 2008;Telles, 2009). Some of the studies reviewed herein showed a reduction of anxiety symptoms (Innes & Selfe, 2012;Khalsa et al, 2013;Michalsen et al, 2005Michalsen et al, , 2012Rocha et al, 2012;Smith et al, 2011;Streeter et al, 2010;Tekur et al, 2012;Telles et al, 2012;Vadiraja et al, 2009) and a reduction of sympathetic activation (Harinath et al, 2004) after yoga training. Notably, both state anxiety scores (Telles et al, 2009) and heart rate (Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 2010) decreased after a single yoga session, suggesting the state effect of the practice.…”

“…Increases in positive affect and spirituality were also found in patients (Danhauer et al, 2009), and quality of life scores improved in survivors (Culos-Reed et al, 2006) compared with control groups. Finally, many studies evaluated the effects of yoga in adults with complaints of distress, demonstrating a reduction of perceived stress, state and trait anxiety, and depression scores compared with a wait-list control group (Michalsen et al, 2005(Michalsen et al, , 2012Smith, Greer, Sheets, & Watson, 2011;Telles, Singh, Yadav, & Balkrishna, 2012;Telles, Gaur, & Balkrishna, 2009). Likewise, these participants also exhibited an increase in quality of life (Michalsen et al, 2012;Telles et al, 2012) and well being (Michalsen et al, 2005) compared with the wait-list control group.…”

“…Finally, many studies evaluated the effects of yoga in adults with complaints of distress, demonstrating a reduction of perceived stress, state and trait anxiety, and depression scores compared with a wait-list control group (Michalsen et al, 2005(Michalsen et al, , 2012Smith, Greer, Sheets, & Watson, 2011;Telles, Singh, Yadav, & Balkrishna, 2012;Telles, Gaur, & Balkrishna, 2009). Likewise, these participants also exhibited an increase in quality of life (Michalsen et al, 2012;Telles et al, 2012) and well being (Michalsen et al, 2005) compared with the wait-list control group. One study compared yoga with a passive stretching control condition and wait-list control group and found that improvements in quality of life and a reduction of stress scores following yoga training were significantly higher compared with only the wait-list and not passive stretching group (Afonso et al, 2012).…”

“…Some studies found that yoga produced a greater reduction of salivary cortisol levels among distressed adults (Michalsen et al, 2005), breast cancer patients (Vadiraja et al, 2009), and healthy military men (Rocha et al, 2012) compared with control groups. However, Kiecolt-Glaser et al (2010) did not find significant differences in cortisol levels after a yoga class following experimental stress induction between experienced and naive yoga practitioners.…”

“…Positive results were found with yoga practice ranging from as little as one single session (Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 2010;Michalsen et al, 2005;Telles et al, 2009) to 7 days (Tekur et al, 2012;Telles et al, 2012), 6 -10 weeks (Culos-Reed et al, 2006Danhauer et al, 2009;Deshpande et al, 2008;Innes & Selfe, 2012;Khalsa et al, 2013;Smith et al, 2011;Vadiraja et al, 2009), 3-4 months (Afonso et al, 2012;Bilderbeck et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2009;Harinath et al, 2004;Khalsa et al, 2012;Michalsen et al, 2005Michalsen et al, , 2012Streeter et al, 2010), and 6 months (Chen et al, 2009;Krishnamurthy & Telles, 2007;Rocha et al, 2012). Three studies demonstrated that the frequency of practice was associated with lower mood disturbances (Khalsa et al, 2012), reduced LPP in response to negative images (Gootjes et al, 2011), and greater well being and quality of sleep (Danhauer et al, 2009).…”