I don’t know why but I have always been intimidated by yoga. It seemed too complicated and sophisticated for my country bumpkin self. Isn’t it funny how wrong our assumptions can be? There are tons of benefits from yoga, but one of the most recently accepted is relieving allergy symptoms.
For a long time there was anecdotal evidence that yoga could help alleviate allergy or asthma symptoms, but no large medical studies had been done to substantiate these claims. Recently (May 2009) a long term study was completed that showed a marked improvement in allergy and asthma symptoms in people who practiced Hatha yoga three times a week for ten weeks. The poses are held for up to a minute and there is a focus on deep breathing, which they believe is the key to helping asthma symptoms. Forty-three percent of people showed an improvement. That’s pretty excellent for not having to alter medications. Of course the allergy studies still haven’t been done ::sigh::
This matters for me because my asthma is caused by my seasonal allergies, which are truly heinous. I started a yoga regime shortly after the article came out just to see if it would help any and so far so good. I have noticed it is easier to breathe with the yoga breathing techniques and am hopeful that the longer I practice yoga the better my asthma and allergy symptoms will get.
Do you use yoga to control your seasonal allergy and/or asthma symptoms?
Photo Credit: Akalat
Fri, Jul 3, 2009
Allergy Remedies