Stress, Disease, and Need for Yoga

   Due to modern medicine, many communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, and smallpox are no longer the leading cause of death. It is now the noncommunicable diseases that are causing the majority of death world wide.
The World Health Organization estimates 80% of these deaths are attributed to

• cardiovascular disease 
• cancer
• diabetes
• respiratory disease

These diseases come from four main behavioral risk factors:

• tobacco
• lack of physical activity
• unhealthy diets
• harmful use of alcohol

   These behaviors tend to increase as people feel more stress. They lead to a negative feedback cycle. People increase the harmful activity as the stress increases. The stress gets worse because of the behavior and the lack of addressing the real issues. Chronic stress affects nearly every biological system and creates chronic inflammation (Chrousos & Gold, 1992). By not addressing the underlying causes of stress, the noncommunicable diseases increase.
   The good news is that these are behaviors that people can change if they have the knowledge and tools. Yoga gives people who seek them these tools. Yoga teaches people how to become aware and mindful. "Yoga is a step-by-step path to improve one's perceptive abilities, awareness, and mindfulness, often starting with the body but extending to the breath, the nervous system, and the mind." (Khalsa, Cohen, McCall, Telles, 2016) As a yoga student becomes more aware of their bodies and mind, they are better able to understand their behaviors. If they understand their behaviors, they can end the negative feedback cycles as they return to a state of homeostasis or samatvam.
   How does someone get started with a yoga practice and quash chronic stress and inflammation? Yoga is more than the fancy poses or asanas prevalent in social media. A simple way to begin is with pranayama or breathing practices. Some free resources include the app Insight Timer and the google extension Breathe. We have started Yoga Studd Studio on YouTube to share some simple yoga help. There are many other resources and tools available. We will continue this page and add more. If you add Insight Timer, you can add us as friends (Nichole Witchey Studd, Rudy Studd) and we just might find ourselves healing and breathing together. 
​Namaste

Chrousos, G. P., & Gold, P. W. (1992). The concepts of stress and stress system disorders.
     Overview of physical and behavioral homeostasis. Journal of the American Medical
     Association, 267 (9), 1244–1252.

Khalsa, S.B., Cohen, L.,  McCall, T. & Telles, S. (2016). The Principles and Practice of Yoga
     in Health Care. Edinburgh:Handspring Publishing
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