Steven Edwards at Wired Blog writes a post titled Yoga Boosts Brain’s GABA Lev­els, say­ing that “Par­tic­i­pants in the yoga group had a 27% increase in GABA lev­els, while those in the read­ing group remained unchanged. Co-authors Chris Streeter from BUSM and Domenic Ciraulo pointed out that this research shows a method of treat­ing low GABA states. Fairly obvi­ous — yes — but this shows a non­phar­ma­co­log­i­cal method for increas­ing GABA lev­els that peo­ple can act on now, with­out wait­ing for a drug to go through FDA approval.”

Hav­ing attended last week a con­fer­ence where neu­ropharma exec­u­tives pre­sented all their future drugs against obe­sity, anx­i­ety, depression…I couldn’t agree more. The rates of seri­ous side effects of these drugs are astound­ing, yet as a soci­ety we seem to pre­fer to rely on tak­ing drugs when are sick rather than proac­tively tak­ing charge of our health and lifestyles and do our best (which not always is enough) to pro­tect our fit­ness and wellness.

The press release Steven talks about: Yoga and Ele­vated Brain GABA Lev­els [PhysOrg]. Quotes:

• “Researchers at Boston Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine (BUSM) and McLean Hos­pi­tal have found that prac­tic­ing yoga may ele­vate brain gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) lev­els, the brain’s pri­mary inhibitory neu­ro­trans­mit­ter. The find­ings, which appear in the May issue of the Jour­nal of Alter­na­tive and Com­ple­men­tary Med­i­cine, sug­gest that the prac­tice of yoga be explored as a pos­si­ble treat­ment for depres­sion and anx­i­ety, dis­or­ders asso­ci­ated with low GABA levels.”
• “The devel­op­ment of an inex­pen­sive, widely avail­able inter­ven­tion such as yoga that has no side effects but is effec­tive in alle­vi­at­ing the symp­toms of dis­or­ders asso­ci­ated with low GABA lev­els has clear pub­lic health advan­tage,” added senior author Perry Ren­shaw, MD, PhD, direc­tor of the Brain Imag­ing Cen­ter at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.

Related posts:

Are yoga and med­i­ta­tion good for my brain?

Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day

Bill Clin­ton on health care and wellness

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