stress

Sleepless nights raise brain levels of Alzheimer’s protein, study finds

Sleepless nights

After a night of no sleep, even a healthy brain has higher than normal levels of the protein that forms the signature tangles in Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the Netherlands.

“We think normal healthy sleep helps reduce the amount of (amyloid) beta in the brain and if your sleep is disturbed this decrease is prevented,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Jurgen Claassen, from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen.

In people who repeatedly fail to get a good night’s sleep, the amyloid-beta concentration may build up and could be one factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death for older Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up to 5 million Americans have the condition.

Distinct from other forms of dementia, Alzheimer’s is partly defined by accumulations in the brain of the amyloid-beta protein. The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known, but the amyloid-beta plaques have long been thought to play an important role.

Claassen and his colleagues point out in JAMA Neurology that studies on mice have found decreases in the amount of amyloid-beta in healthy animals’ brains after a good night’s sleep. That suggests sleep plays a role in cleaning out the protein overnight.

To see if the same is true in people, the researchers recruited 26 middle-aged men with normal sleep habits to have their protein levels measured before and after sleep, or a lack of it.

The men were brought into the clinic, where a catheter was put into their spine to take fluid samples before they went to bed and after they woke up. Half of the men were randomly assigned to get a good night’s sleep while the other half were kept awake.

The researchers found that the men who got a good night’s sleep had amyloid-beta levels in their spinal fluid about 6 percent lower in the morning than when they had gone to bed. The men who were kept awake all night had no change in their amyloid-beta levels.

The quality of sleep men got was also linked to how much of a decrease in amyloid-beta was measured, which suggests more of the amino acid is cleared out with better sleep, the team writes.

“We think the beta is cleared from the brain or less produced during sleep,” Claassen told Reuters Health, adding that it could be both.

While most people may not stay up all night for weeks at a time, Claassen also said that even partly-sleepless nights can add up.

“We did a complete night of sleep deprivation which is kind of extreme, but it’s similar to a week of partial sleep deprivation,” he said.

“Based on this and other studies, it would be good to have people look at their sleep behaviors, but not be frightened themselves if they miss a good night’s sleep,” he added.

Dr. Michael Shelanski, co-director of Columbia University Medical Center’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain in New York City, cautioned that the new study can’t prove the amyloid-beta proteins have anything to do with Alzheimer’s risk.

“We really don’t have any evidence from this paper that that’s the case,” said Shelanski, who was not involved in the new study.

“This is an interesting study,” he said. “It’s a good study, but it doesn’t really say anything about Alzheimer’s disease other than you should look further and see if the sleep patterns are related to these things.”

Claassen acknowledges that his team’s results do not prove that getting ample sleep will prevent Alzheimer’s disease, or that an amyloid-beta build-up causes the condition. Sleep may be just one of many risk factors for the illness, he said. Others include genetics, high blood pressure and obesity.

“We think it’s a disease that has several causes not just one, but we don’t know which ones,” he added.

Source: Fox news

Tart cherry juice good for cyclists

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Researchers have said that cyclists who drank Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate before a three-day simulated race experienced less inflammation and oxidative stress compared to those who drank another beverage.

A research team led by Dr. Glyn Howatson with PhD student Phillip Bell at Northumbria University gave 16 well-trained, male cyclists about 1 ounce (30 ml) of Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate mixed with water (equivalent to 90 whole Montmorency tart cherries per serving), or a calorie-matched placebo, twice a day for seven days.

On days five, six and seven, the participants performed prolonged, high-intensity cycling intervals – exercise that was designed to replicate the demands of a three-day race.

The researchers collected blood samples and found that markers of inflammation and oxidative stress were significantly lower in the cyclists who consumed the tart cherry juice concentrate compared to those who did not.

At one point during the trial, oxidative stress was nearly 30 percent lower in the tart cherry group compared to the other group.

Strenuous exercise can cause temporary inflammation and oxidative stress that can lead to muscle damage, muscle soreness and reduced capacity to recover quickly, explains research lead Glyn Howatson, Ph.D., laboratory director at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University. He attributes the recovery benefits shown in the study to the natural compounds in Montmorency tart cherries. One of the natural compounds found in Montmorency tart cherries is anthocyanins.

The study has been published in the journal Nutrients.

Source: Times of India

Study reveals stress degrades sperm quality

stress degrades

Psychological stress is harmful to sperm and semen quality, affecting its concentration, appearance, and ability to fertilize an egg, according to a study led by researchers Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Rutgers School of Public Health. Results are published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects men and women equally, and semen quality is a key indicator of male fertility.

“Men who feel stressed are more likely to have lower concentrations of sperm in their ejaculate, and the sperm they have are more likely to be misshapen or have impaired motility,” says senior author Pam Factor-Litvak, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. “These deficits could be associated with fertility problems.”

The researchers studied 193 men, ages 38 to 49, enrolled in the Study of the Environment and Reproduction at the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in Oakland, California, between 2005 and 2008. The men completed tests to measure work and life stress on subjective scale (how they felt overall) and objective scale (life events behind the stress). They also provided semen samples. Technicians at the University of California, Davis, used standard methods employed in fertility testing to assess the samples for semen concentration, and sperm appearance and motility.

Measured subjectively or objectively, life stress degraded semen quality, even after accounting for men’s concerns about their fertility, their history of reproductive health problems, or their other health issues. Workplace stress was not a factor, however the researchers say it may still affect reproductive health since men with job strain had diminished levels of testosterone. Being without a job did not improve matters. Unemployed men had sperm of lower quality than employed men, regardless of how stressed they were.

It is not fully understood how stress affects semen quality. It may trigger the release of steroid hormones called glucocorticoids, which in turn could blunt levels of testosterone and sperm production. Another possibility is oxidative stress, which has been shown to affect semen quality and fertility.

“Stress has long been identified as having an influence on health. Our research suggests that men’s reproductive health may also be affected by their social environment,” says Teresa Janevic, PhD, the study’s first author and an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
While several previous studies have examined the link between stress and semen quality, the current paper is the first to look at subjective and objective measures of stress and find associations with semen concentration, and sperm appearance and motility.

Source: science daily

Yoga can ease stress for pregnant women

Yoga-pregnantwomen

Practicing yoga during pregnancy can help you reap health benefits like stress reduction and a decrease in a woman’s fear of childbirth, according to researchers.

A new report from Manchester University researchers finds that it can ease stress and reduce women`s fear of childbirth by a third. In addition to its many other health benefits for pregnant women, including reduced cortisol levels, less difficult birth plus more full term and healthy weight neonates, pregnancy yoga is a low cost intervention too.

Yoga teacher Natasha Harding has two children that she delivered naturally using her skills in the art. “Yoga is a wonderful exercise to try during pregnancy, when you naturally want to take it a bit easier. It’s ideal to ease many of the ailments that women suffer from when they’re pregnant such as backache, sciatica and general aches and pains,” she said.

“By maintaining a regular yoga practice during pregnancy the positions will become second nature with the aim being that the woman can have a more active labour with less intervention.

“My second baby was born in 51 minutes. It was because of the fact I did yoga every single day and felt so strong during the birth,” he added.

Harding`s five favourite yoga poses to try every day while you’re expecting:

* Butterfly (Badha Konasana): This position allows the baby to move down into the pelvis and uses all the muscles that a woman draws upon in labour. The yoga guru BKS Iyengar claims if a woman practises this pose every day it will take the pain out of child-birth.

* Wide Legged Seated (Upivista Konasana): Stretching your legs in this position will encourage your hips to be more flexible which is clearly vital during labour. It’s a great position to do every day if possible and leaning forward will gently stretch the back too and towards the end encourage the baby into a good birth pose.

* Staff (Dandasana): Staff pose is wonderful to sit in and circle your ankles and legs each day which will help with any puffiness you may be experiencing. When you combine breathing work too. you’re helping to release your shoulders as well as creating much needed space in your abdomen and chest. It’s a good one to try if you’re getting heart burn.

* Cat (Marjariasana) with arm and leg lifts: Being on your hands and knees is wonderful for any pregnant women as it relieves symptoms of backache and encourages the baby into a good birth pose – our mums would have been told to wash the floors. By lifting the arm and leg you stabilise the pelvis which is vital during pregnancy.

* Down Dog – adapted for pregnancy (Adho Mukha Svanasana): A lot of women find their back aches a lot during pregnancy and Down Dog is a great stretch to try. When you’re pregnant though you shouldn’t do the full pose, so using the wall instead will give a similar stretch but it’s much safer.

Source: zee news

Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Not Just in Your Head

You don’t need a doctor to tell you that anxiety can have a negative effect on your health. But do you really know the toll that long-term stress can take?

Stress is the body’s reaction to something that taxes or exceeds its resources, says Frances Cohen, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. When we perceive something as harmful, our brain triggers hormones such as cortisol, which flood the body and contribute to various physical responses.

Here are several ways stress can affect different aspects of your health — and how you can protect yourself against them.

Lack of Sleep

Anxiety is one of the main causes of insomnia and sleep disruption: When you think about something stressful while lying in bed, it’s harder for your body to relax and drift off to dreamland — and this nightly pattern only gets worse as your brain and body learn to dread bedtime.

You may also be deliberately robbing yourself of much-needed rest by staying up too late or rising too early: Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but many overscheduled and overworked adults regularly get by on less. Skimping on sleep can cause fatigue and attention problems, and increase your risk of disease.

Weakened Immune System

We’ve all experienced the nasty cold that comes after a deadline — a reminder that psychological stress can weaken defenses and make us more susceptible to germs. It can also slow our recovery from illnesses; in fact, research has shown that stress hormones actually make immune cells age faster.

It’s not just minor ailments to which stress leaves us vulnerable, either: Consistently high levels of stress can reduce a woman’s ability to fight infections such as human papilloma virus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer.

Low-Level Inflammation

Whether you scrape your knee, twist your ankle, or succumb to strep throat, the body’s reaction is the same: The immune system sends in white blood cells to destroy bacteria and repair the tissue, causing redness, swelling, and warmth. This healing process, called the inflammatory response, is one of the body’s most basic survival instincts.
But when bombarded by unrelenting stress, the immune system works overtime, releasing a stream of inflammation-promoting compounds that spread throughout the body, damaging cells and tissues. If left unchecked, low-level inflammation can simmer for years, contributing to a range of seemingly unrelated ailments such as heart disease, asthma, and cancers.
High Blood Pressure

Stress and anxiety stimulate your nervous system to raise levels of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which narrow blood vessels and therefore increase your risk of developing hypertension. Only about a third of people with hypertension (blood pressure higher than 140/90) know they have it — even though it affects around one in three American adults.
The condition can be bad news if left untreated, raising your risk of such ailments as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and blindness. Fortunately, eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly — and learning to stress less — can help you stay healthy.

Blemishes and Wrinkles

Just as inflammation can have a negative effect on your long-term health, it can also have a physical — and much more immediate — effect on your appearance. Stress and fatigue can lead to puffy skin and a blotchy complexion, dark circles under the eyes, and early wrinkles. Hormones triggered by stress can also cause breakouts well into adulthood.

In addition to getting enough sleep and reducing stress levels, you can calm redness and blemishes with serums and gels that contain extracts of anti-inflammatory herbs like chamomile, calendula, and lavender

Aches and Pains

Millions of us work at desks every day, and our bodies pay the price. From stiff necks and tension headaches to throbbing backs, head-to-toe pain can result from staring at a computer for hours on end — and when you’re stressed about your job, you’re less likely to take frequent breaks and more likely to overdo it.

Inflammation caused by stress has also been linked to migraines and rheumatoid arthritis, two chronic pain conditions that may improve with stress-reduction techniques.

Mental Health

Trying to do too much at once — whether it’s work assignments, family obligations, or social appointments — can leave you feeling burned out and empty inside. 817132d7edd2b285_stress.xxxlarge
Too often, when stressors start to pile up, the first things we push aside are the ones that can help us cope: quailty time with friends and family, alone time for reflection and enjoyment, a good night’s sleep, and regular exercise. These activities help our brains and bodies cope with the harmful effects of stress, and without them to keep us grounded, it’s easy to spin out of control.
Substance Abuse

When you’re juggling the multiple responsibilities of work and home, being frazzled can start to feel normal. Many people have never learned healthy ways of dealing with stress, instead turning to alcohol or nicotine.

Weight Gain

Stress, fatigue, and weight gain are common companions: Sleep deprivation can cue your body to release stress hormones, triggering weight gain. Studies have shown that those who sleep fewer than eight hours a night have higher body mass than people who sleep a full eight hours, and that babies who sleep fewer than 12 hours a day are twice as likely to be overweight by age 3.

Meanwhile, stress can also lead to poor food choices; this can put your body on a blood-sugar roller coaster, which causes low energy (and, in turn, makes it even harder to get to the gym or outside for a walk). And the less time you have to take care of yourself, the harder it is to make healthy changes.

Infertility

Infertility is a medical condition used to describe couples who have tried unsuccessfully to conceive for 12 months. By the time a woman or a couple receives this label, they’re often highly stressed, says Tracy Gaudet, M.D., director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University — which only makes matters worse. (Read Dr. Gaudet’s guide to coping with infertility.)

The higher a woman’s stress level, the lower her fertility. Highly stressed women can stop ovulating altogether, which makes sense biologically: In the hunter-gatherer days, stress probably indicated a lack of food or an imminent threat — not wise times to bring an infant into the world

Low Libido

There are quite a few external causes of low libido and tension between you and your partner, and many of them have to do with stress. The first year or two after the birth of a baby, for instance, when both parents are often overwhelmed and sleep-deprived, is a notorious libido killer. Career-focused years can leave women depleted and stressed, with all of their passion going into their jobs. And chronic stress can lead to depression, also a cause of plummeting desire.

Gastrointestinal Issues

That feeling of butterflies in your stomach may very well have a physiological basis: Your GI tract has its own nervous system, which is why stress can cause digestive problems such as diarrhea, heartburn, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Learn to manage stress — and reduce GI problems — by exploring massage, art therapy, breathing exercises, and other relaxation techniques.

Self-Fulfilling Pessimism

There’s nothing wrong with considering the potential pitfalls of your current situation — for a little while. It’s smart to anticipate and plan for how you’ll handle a given obstacle.
But endlessly stressing over what might go wrong often proves more than unproductive. It can actually set you up for the very thing you fear the most. When you visualize a negative outcome, you approach things differently. You operate, ironically, in a way that supports the result you most want to avoid.

Source: Whole living

Indian employers rank stress No 1 lifestyle risk factor: Survey

ndian-employers-rank-stress-no-1-lifestyle-risk-factor-survey

Indian employers are ahead of their Asia Pacific counterparts in developing strategies to manage work-related stress as one in every three employers instituted stress management programmes last year and an almost equal number plan to do so this year, says a survey.

According to the inaugural Asia Pacific edition of the ‘Staying@Work’ survey conducted by professional services company Towers Watson, stress is the number one lifestyle risk factor, ranking above physical inactivity and obesity.

A growing recognition among employers is that the workplace experience can both contribute to and reduce employee stress and an increasing number of employers are planning lifestyle change programmes that were not as prevalent as of now.

“Almost 1 in every 3 Indian employers has instituted stress or resilience management programmes in 2013 and an almost equal number plan to follow suit in 2014. With stress being ranked as #1 lifestyle risk factor in India, this number is likely to grow,” the report said.

“It is noteworthy that Indian employers fared better than their Asia Pacific counterparts in managing employees’ work -related stress,” Towers Watson India Director, Benefits Anuradha Sriram said.

Integrating various initiatives into a comprehensive and robust health and productivity strategy is a gradual process, but the fact that Indian companies have begun taking positive strides in this direction augurs well, Sriram added.

According to Indian employees the top three reasons for stress at workplace include unclear or conflicting job expectations, inadequate staffing (lack of support, uneven workload in group) and lack of work/life balance.

One of the most common solution adopted by employers to manage employees’ stress is offering flexible working hours as 50 per cent of employers resort to this solution.

Other top solutions adopted by employers include organise stress management interventions like workshops, yoga, tai chi and undertake education and awareness campaigns to help their employees manage stress.

Though Indian employers are ahead of their regional peers in managing stress at workplace, only 38 per cent have identified stress management at workplace as a top priority of their health and productivity programs, signaling a vast scope for improvement in this area.

“In a challenging economic scenario, where companies are stretched to balance costs and maximise productivity, employers need to identify specific triggers that impact employee wellness, engagement and in turn productivity,” Sriram said.

Source: Hindustan Times

Chronic stress in early life linked to anxiety, aggression in adulthood

Researchers have suggested that chronic stress in early life causes anxiety, aggression in adulthood.

A research team led by Associate Professor Grigori Enikolopov of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) conducted experiments designed to assess the impacts of social stress upon adolescent mice, both at the time they are experienced and during adulthood.

The tests began with 1-month-old male mice – the equivalent, in human terms of adolescents – each placed for 2 weeks in a cage shared with an aggressive adult male.

The animals were separated by a transparent perforated partition, but the young males were exposed daily to short attacks by the adult males. This kind of chronic activity produces what neurobiologists call social-defeat stress in the young mice. These mice were then studied in a range of behavioral tests.

These experiments showed that in young mice chronic social defeat induced high levels of anxiety helplessness, diminished social interaction, and diminished ability to communicate with other young animals. Stressed mice also had less new nerve-cell growth (neurogenesis) in a portion of the hippocampus known to be affected in depression: the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus.

Another group of young mice was also exposed to social stress, but was then placed for several weeks in an unstressful environment. Following this “rest” period, these mice, now old enough to be considered adults, were tested in the same manner as the other cohort.

In this second, now-adult group, most of the behaviors impacted by social defeat returned to normal, as did neurogenesis , which retuned to a level seen in healthy controls. “This shows that young mice, exposed to adult aggressors, were largely resilient biologically and behaviorally,” says Dr. Enikolopov.

However, in these resilient mice, the team measured two latent impacts on behavior. As adults they were abnormally anxious, and were observed to be more aggressive in their social interactions.

The study has been published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

Source: zee news

Harvard yoga scientists find proof of meditation benefit

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Scientists are getting close to proving that yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease. Scientists are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries—yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease.

John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function.

While hundreds of studies have been conducted on the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. Only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies allowed scientists to measure physiological changes in greater detail.
“There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”

The government-funded study may persuade more doctors to try an alternative route for tackling the source of a myriad of modern ailments. Stress-induced conditions can include everything from hypertension and infertility to depression and even the aging process. They account for 60-90% of doctor’s visits in the US, according to the Benson-Henry Institute. The World Health
Organization estimates stress costs US companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity.

Seinfeld, Murdoch

The science is advancing alongside a budding mindfulness movement, which includes meditation devotees such as Bill George, board member of Goldman Sachs Group and Exxon Mobil Corp., and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. News Corp.  chairman Rupert Murdoch recently revealed on Twitter that he is giving meditation a try.

As a psychiatrist specializing in depression, Denninger said he was attracted to mind-body medicine, pioneered in the late 1960s by Harvard professor Herbert Benson, as a possible way to prevent the onset of depression through stress reduction. While treatment with pharmaceuticals is still essential, he sees yoga and meditation as useful additions to his medical arsenal.

Exchange programme

It’s an interest that dates back to an exchange programme he attended in China the summer before entering Harvard as an undergraduate student. At Hangzhou University, he trained with a tai chi master every morning for three weeks. “By the end of my time there, I had gotten through my thick teenage skull that there was something very important about the breath and about inhabiting the present moment, he said. I’ve carried that with me since then.” His current study, to conclude in 2015 with about $3.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, tracks 210 healthy subjects with high levels of reported chronic stress for six months. They are divided in three groups.

One group with 70 participants perform a form of yoga known as Kundalini, another 70 meditate and the rest listen to stress education audiobooks, all for 20 minutes a day at home. Kundalini is a form of yoga that incorporates meditation, breathing exercises and the singing of mantras in addition to postures. Denninger said it was chosen for the study because of its strong
meditation component.

Participants come into the lab for weekly instruction for two months, followed by three sessions where they answer questionnaires, give blood samples used for genomic analysis and undergo neuro-imaging tests.

‘Immortality enzyme’
Unlike earlier studies, this one is the first to focus on participants with high levels of stress. The study published in May in the medical journal PloS One showed that one session of relaxation-response practice was enough to enhance the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and insulin secretion and reduce expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and
stress. There was an effect even among novices who had never practiced before. Harvard isn’t the only place where scientists have started examining the biology behind yoga.

In a study published last year, scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43%, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, shared the Nobel medicine prize in 2009 with
Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for research on the telomerase immortality enzyme, which slows the cellular aging process.

Build resilience

Not all patients will be able to stick to a daily regimen of exercise and relaxation. Nor should they have to, according to Denninger and others. Simply knowing breath-management techniques and having a better understanding of stress can help build resilience.

“A certain amount of stress can be helpful,” said Sophia Dunn, a clinical psychotherapist who trained at King’s College London. “Yoga and meditation are tools for enabling us to swim in difficult waters.”

Source: Live Mint

Is homework making your child sick?

New research shows that some students are doing more than three hours of homework a night — and that all that school work may be literally making them sick.

It may be tempting to dismiss this latest research, conducted in upper-middle-class areas, as yet another manifestation of the eccentricities of the affluent. This is, after all, the same demographic that recently brought us eye-roll-inducing news stories about $250-an-hour tutors who drill preschoolers on their ABCs and 1-2-3s.

Could it be that a few short years later those same tots have graduated to marathon homework sessions?
“The three hours of homework a night was an average, by the way,” says Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate

School of Education

The researchers sought to examine the relationship between homework load and student well-being and engagement, as well as to understand how homework can act as a stressor in students’ lives.

Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives.

And while some of the grousing about having too much homework and feeling stressed out may seem like typical adolescent complaints, this latest study joins a growing body of research that paints a disturbing tableau about the unrelenting pressure on privileged children.

That children growing up in poverty are at-risk for a number of ailments is both intuitive and well-supported by research. More difficult to believe is the growing consensus that children on the other end of the spectrum, children raised in affluence, may also be at risk.

“Parents’ first responsibility is to the health of their child,” Pope says. “Parents need to be advocates and cheerleaders, not graders and correctors. And you certainly don’t want to say to your kid, ‘Give me half of the homework!'”

Parents need to advocate for their children with the tools and numbers and research in hand. We’re talking about respectful dialogue.”

Source: CNN

Get rid of dark circles with these yoga asanas

Even with good skin and great make-up, a woman can look tired and fatigued due to dark circles. Thought to be caused due to stress, lack of sleep and in some cases due to constant ill health, dark circles are also known to form due to lack of oxygen and blood flow to the face. That is why Ayurveda and yoga practitioners believe that by increasing the blood flow to one’s face it can help resolve the problem. So instead of trying various chemical and cosmetic methods to get rid of them, here is an all natural way to zap those dark circles away.

Hastapadotasana: Also known as the standing forward bend pose, this asana is the first one you should perform in this series. Hastapadotasna stretches out the muscles of almost all parts of the body, invigorates the nervous system, resolves digestive disorders and helps increase the blood flow to your face. It is also know to help tone the muscles of the abdomen and relieve any stomach disorders.

Steps to do this pose: Stand straight with your legs shoulder width apart. Now, stretch both your hands forward and upwards, making sure you feel a stretch up your spine. Now start bending slowly until your palms are touching the floor and your head touches your knees. For most people touching their hands to the floor might be difficult, so don’t fret, keep trying till you start feeling comfortable. Once in this position, breathe normally and hold the asana for as long as you are comfortable.

Tip: Avoid doing this pose if you suffer from spondylitis, high blood pressure or heart disease.

After you have performed hastapadotasana, you can perform the other asanas in this series. Do not do the other poses before you do this asana.

Viparitakarani: Also known as the legs-up-the-wall pose, is great when it comes to beating dark circles. It not only increases the blood flow to your head and face but is also beneficial in stretching out the back, relieving lower back pain and calming the mind. One of this aasana’s greatest benefits is that it helps relieve cramps in the back and leg and calms the mind. According to Ayurveda lack of sleep and stress are the number one cause for dark circles and this asana targets exactly those areas.

Steps to do the asana: Lie down flat on the floor, near a wall. Now, raise your legs such that they are rested comfortably along the wall and the base of your back is touching the wall. Stretch your arms out on either side of your body and relax. You may choose to raise your chin towards the ceiling, but do not stress your neck while doing this pose. Close your eyes and breathe in deep allowing yourself to relax. Hold this pose for as long as you are comfortable.

Tip: Avoid doing this pose if you are menstruating, have serious eye disorders like glaucoma or suffer from high blood pressure.

Sambhavi mudra: Is a form of yoga practice that helps awaken the ajna chakra. Although it is called a mudra, this is a form of meditation that is meant to awaken the most important chakra in our body. Apart from that this mudra helps calm the mind, stretch the muscles around the eyes and relaxes those present between the eyebrows.

Steps to do this pose: Sit comfortably in a calm corner of your house and place your palms on your thighs. Make sure your palms are facing upwards so that there is an equal distribution of energy. Now turn both your eyeballs so that you are literally trying to look at the centre of your eyebrows. Breathe normally and hold this pose for five to six counts. To intensify the mudra you can choose to hum ‘Om’. This is not religious in any way but is based on scientific evidence that the word ‘Om’, when chanted produces a type of vibration throughout the body, that is very beneficial to massage the nervous system and activate the chakras. To stop doing the mudra, close your eyes and slowly bring your eyes back to their normal position. Keep your eyes closed for a short while and then slowly open them.

Surya Namaskar: Surya Namaskar has a deep effect in detoxifying the organs through copious oxygenation and has a deeper relaxing effect. It is a series of 12 physical postures. These alternating backward and forward bending postures flex and stretch the spinal column giving a profound stretch to the whole body. You can find out how to do the asanas correctly in our post about surya namaskar.

Source: health