{"id":8802,"date":"2023-11-15T16:13:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=8802"},"modified":"2023-11-15T16:22:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:22:54","slug":"for-epilepsy-yoga-may-be-good-for-your-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/for-epilepsy-yoga-may-be-good-for-your-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"For epilepsy, yoga may be good for your mind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For people with epilepsy, doing yoga may help reduce feelings of stigma about the disease along with reducing seizure frequency and anxiety, according to new research published in the November 8, 2023, online issue of <\/strong>Neurology<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the medical journal of the <\/strong>American Academy of Neurology<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople with epilepsy often face stigma that can cause them to feel different than others due to their own health condition and that can have a significant impact on their quality of life,\u201d said study author Manjari Tripathi, MD, DM, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. \u201cThis stigma can affect a person\u2019s life in many ways including treatment, emergency department visits and poor mental health. Our study showed that doing yoga can alleviate the burden of epilepsy and improve the overall quality of life by reducing this perceived stigma.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the study, researchers looked at people with epilepsy with an average age of 30 in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers measured stigma based on participants\u2019 answers to questions such as: \u201cDo you feel other people discriminate against you?\u201d \u201cDo you feel you cannot contribute anything in society?\u201d and \u201cDo you feel different from other people?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers then identified 160 people who met the criteria for experiencing stigma. Participants had an average of one seizure per week and on average took at least two anti-seizure medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers then randomly assigned participants to receive yoga therapy or sham yoga therapy. Yoga therapy included exercises in loosening muscles, breathing, meditation and positive affirmations. Sham yoga consisted of exercises that mimic the same yoga exercises, but participants were not given instructions on two key components of yoga believed to induce a relaxation response: slow and synchronized breathing, and attention to the body movements and sensations during practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each group received seven supervised group sessions of 45 to 60 minutes over three months. Participants were also asked to practice sessions at home at least five times a week for 30 minutes. They tracked seizures and yoga sessions in a journal. After the three months of therapy, participants were followed for another three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Researchers found when compared to people who did sham yoga, people who did yoga were more likely to reduce their perceived stigma of the disease. People who did yoga had an average score of seven at the start of the study and an average score of four at the end of the study, while people who did sham yoga had an increase from an average score of six at the start of the study to an average score of seven at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers also found that people who did yoga were more than four times as likely to have more than a 50% reduction in their seizure frequency after six months than the people who did sham yoga.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In addition, people who did yoga were more than seven times more likely to no longer have seizures than those who did sham yoga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also a significant decrease in anxiety symptoms for people who did yoga versus people who did not. They saw improvements in quality of life measures and mindfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese study findings elevate the need to consider alternative therapies and activities for people with epilepsy facing stigma,\u201d said Tripathi. \u201cYoga may not only help reduce stigma, but also improve quality of life and mindfulness. Plus, yoga can be easily prerecorded and shared with patients online using minimal resources and costs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People who did yoga were more than four times as likely to have more than a 50% reduction in their seizure frequency after six months than the people who did sham yoga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,35],"tags":[2048,2218,626],"class_list":["post-8802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","category-spotlight","category-wellness-2","tag-good-life","tag-high-life","tag-yoga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8802"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8808,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions\/8808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}