Yoga With Pamela McDowell

Yoga could make you happier.

Ok, to anyone who regularly practices yoga, this is not news. But a new study gives some bio-chemical reason for why yoga can make you feel happier and calmer.

In a pilot study, researchers from Boston, MA found that an hour of yoga increased levels of GABA in the brain by 27%.

They’re happy because their study supports their hypothesis “that an individual yoga session would increase brain GABA levels.”
They’re also happy because this means that yoga may be able to help depressed people be happier, anxious people be calmer, and epileptics to have fewer seizures.

People experiencing major depression and anxiety disorders tend to have lower brain GABA levels than the general population.

Also, medications to control epileptic seizures tend to increase brain GABA levels, and increasing GABA is one way to treat epilepsy.

So, increased brain GABA levels may be why previous studies have found that yoga helps improve depression, anxiety, and epilepsy.

Whatever the reason behind it, yoga might just help you feel happier.

How to Benefit from the Yoga-GABA Study
Details about the Yoga - GABA Study
What is GABA?
Where to read the report on the Yoga - GABA Study

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Tags: Yoga Studies and Research //