Ten percent of the world’s population are obese? Time for some yoga!
Posted on 04. Feb, 2011 by yogi Tobye in Interesting stuff, Yoga
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Acoording to research done by Harvard University in the US and Imperial College London, ten percent of the world’s population are now obese.
In a joint study published in The Lancet, High blood-pressure and Cholesterol levels are down around the globe, but are obesity levels are steadily rising.
Obesity, high blood-pressure and high cholesterol are all said to be factors in heart disease. From a yogic point of view, all of these issues are related to stress and how we manage our day-to-day stress.
Stress is not always a bad thing. We need a certain amount to function. But it’s how we deal with stress and especially how we release it that is the main factor in us all living healthy lives.
Yoga has been proven to not only deal with stress and alleviate a lot of the symptoms of stress, but also to offer certain techniques for handling stressful situations that can cause high blood-pressure and high cortisol levels in the body.
Cortisol is a hormone which is released when we experience the “fight or flight” instinct in a stressful situation. High cortisol levels in the body occur when we don’t either fight or run. The body creates cholesterol to deal with the high cortisol levels, but the cholesterol has to work in-line with Vitamin C.
High cortisol and lack of vitamin C cause an increase in abdominal fat. Are we seeing a link here yet?
A regular yoga practice can exercise the body, cleansing the body of free-radicals and toxins. Yoga also helps keep lymph glands and nodes clear and free, meaning the body is more able to deal with and clear the body of unwanted hormones and toxins.
If you’re dealing with a lot of stress, come down to the studio in Kilcoole and see how you get on! It’s not a miraculous cure, but I can guarantee you’ll start to feel better straight away!
Related articles
- Obesity Is Up; Hypertension, Cholesterol Down (webmd.com)
- Hormones that Make You Fat: CORTISOL (worldfromthisangle.wordpress.com)
- One in 10 of world’s adults obese (bbc.co.uk)
- Obesity has doubled since 1980, major global analysis of risk factors reveals (news.bioscholar.com)
- Cortisol and Stress: How Cortisol Affects Your Body, and How To Stay Healthy in the Face of Stress (stress.about.com)
