%0 Journal Article
%T Profile of mood states and stress-related biochemical indices in long-term yoga practitioners
%A Kazufumi Yoshihara
%A Tetsuya Hiramoto
%A Nobuyuki Sudo
%A Chiharu Kubo
%J BioPsychoSocial Medicine
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1751-0759-5-6
%X The participants were 38 healthy females with more than 2 years of experience with yoga (long-term yoga group) and 37 age-matched healthy females who had not participated in yoga (control group). Their mental states were assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire. The level of cortisol, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and biopyrrin in urine were used as stress-related biochemical indices.The average self-rated mental disturbance, tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, and fatigue scores of the long-term yoga group were lower than those of the control group. There was a trend toward a higher vigor score in the long-term yoga group than that in the control group. There were no significant differences in the scores for depression and confusion in the POMS between the two groups. The urine 8-OHdG concentration showed a trend toward to being lower in the long-term yoga group in comparison to the control group. There were no significant differences in the levels of urine biopyrrin or cortisol.The present findings suggest that long-term yoga training can reduce the scores related to mental health indicators such as self-rated anxiety, anger, and fatigue.Yoga is an ancient technique of promoting health through exercises, regulation of breathing, and meditation. The practice of yoga has increased in many countries, such as the United States (US), the UK, and Japan. The popularity of yoga in US adults is evident by the estimated increase in participation from 3.7% in 1997, 5.1% in 2002, to 6.1% in 2007 [1,2]. Yoga has been reported to have various therapeutic effects. Studies have shown that the practice of yoga reduces perceived stress and negative feelings and improves mental and physical symptoms [3-6]. Yoga has therapeutic benefits not only for various mental disorders [7-10] but also for some physical diseases, such as asthma [11], hypertension [12], rheumatoid arthritis [13], migraines [14], musculoskeletal disorders [15], cancer-related symptoms [16] an
%U http://www.bpsmedicine.com/content/5/1/6