There’s tons of evidence suggesting yoga fights depression, anxiety, and even PTSD.
There are a number of reasons why — breathing and posture seem to be a part of modulating the stress response, and now researchers have unearthed another reason.
Yoga increases activity of an incredibly important neurotransmitter amino acid you may have heard of — gamma aminobutyric acid. More commonly, known as GABA.
What’s so fascinating about this?
Benzodiazepines, which you probably know are pretty powerful at fighting anxiety, work by acting on, you guessed it, GABA receptors.
Basically, the more GABA, the less anxiety.
Now, according to the study, yoga is another way to affect your GABA levels, and here’s the pretty cool thing: The lead researcher of the new study, Chris Streeter from the Boston School of Medicine, says just one yoga session per week can affect your GABA levels for the entire week.
After 8 days though, GABA levels start to fall again, so it’s important to get that one session per week.
Here’s the science behind how yoga affected brains — as measured by MRI’s and MRS various stages.
“The region of interest was the left thalamus. This area is functionally connected to brain regions associated with mood regulation.
GABA levels rise and fall with progesterone levels. Progesterone is metabolized to allopregnanolone, which directly binds at GABAA receptors and modulates the function of the GABA system. Allopregnanolone has anxiolytic and antidepressant effects.”
