Alternative Health Blog

There are many healthy reasons to develop your own yoga practice or daily habit of poses (start with the daily sun salutation sequence and you will be motivated to do more). Yoga is a simply a fave here at the Alternative Health Blog.

And here’s one more reason to put the to-do checkmark next to yoga. A new study from India researchers indicates that regular yoga sessions can reduce hot flashes, night sweats and overall sleep disruption among women going through menopause. Even better, the yoga habit improves mental function and clarity—at a time when some women contend such cognitive acuity is most difficult.

The study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, randomly divided 120 women experiencing menopause into two groups. The control group completed basic stretching and strengthening exercises five days a week over two months while the experimental group undertook yoga practices that focused on “slowing down the rate of flow of thoughts in the mind.”

Think about that for a minute…slowing down the rate of flow of thought in the mind. Sounds like something we all can use.

The yoga group also listened to lectures on how the ancient healing art can manage stress. The control group sat down for talks about diet, exercise, physiology of menopause and stress. It is interesting to consider that the control group likely had some “busy” minds—what the Buddhists call “monkey mind”—while teachers discussed the oft-covered ground of diet, exercise and stress management. The yoga group, meanwhile, might have benefited to some degree by hearing about a fresh method for reducing life’s tensions.

Both groups were better able to concentrate and remember after the eight-week study, yet the yoga group improved more significantly over seven of eight test areas.

The researchers offered an explanation on why yoga is better than a basic workout program for women going through menopause, citing “correctness in breathing, synchronizing breathing with body movements and mindful rest.”

It all sounds good—for any adult--but yoga can seem almost overwhelming for some of us to learn. That is amplified if your flexibility is, well, let’s just say it doesn’t resemble a pretzel. If you fit into that worry sector, consider adopting a daily yoga practice that is five minutes in the morning or five minutes before bed or, better yet, five minutes on wakeup and five minutes at bedtime. Ask a yoga friend—we all have one, and if not, comment here and we will provide some ideas—for the sun salutation sequence or something like it. Then do you own experiment for eight weeks or even eight days.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Blog every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.