Exercise and Yoga for Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is the disease that affects metabolism and so the entire bodily systems. This is because the hormone called thyroxin plays major role in metabolism of the body and this hormone is secreted, stored and released in the body by the gland called thyroid.

As the name suggest, hypothyroidism means underactive thyroid as hypo means low, less, under or little. In this condition, the thyroid gland produces less thyroxin hormone that is not sufficient to the body's requirement and therefore, the body lacks the hormone and ends up into metabolism complications.

However, hypothyroidism is well treated and controlled by the supplementation of thyroxin hormone but there are certain methods that can help you to live with the disease very happily and without any complications. Exercise and Yoga are two of the best techniques by which, one can easily keep thyroid gland in its normal state.

Light exercises like brisk walking, treadmill and aerobics are very useful. They improve the blood circulation in your body and therefore very helpful in thyroid hormone production. Here one should remember that heavy exercises like weight lifting, dumbles and other muscle-developing exercises are not required. You should better do not do that. All you need is light exercises on the regular basis with proper timing.

You can include various sports instead. Sports are both; fun and exercise. Since hypothyroidism brings weight gaining also, sports that burns the calories will be the preferred one. You can go for playing squash as it is one of the highest calorie burning sports. Other sports include lawn tennis, basketball, football and simply running.

Swimming is another best way to keep your body fit and to keep you hormones in level. You need not go for different kinds of strokes in swimming like butterfly etc. but you should swim at least for ½ - 1 hour early in the morning with the water that does not contain any chlorine. Some of the naturopaths suggest taking bath in natural spring will be excellent idea to keep your body fit and to boost your metabolism that has come down.

Yoga like Hatha Yoga, Pranayama (the breathing techniques), Shavasana (the dead posture), simhasana (the lion posture) and kapalbhanti (another type of breathing technique) help not only keeping thyroid healthy, but they also boost your health keeping you hale and hearty. Latest researches also support Yoga and breathing technique (Pranayama) to be two of the best methods to control your any type of diseases.

Some of the Yoga gurus suggest that meditation plays an important role in keeping your hormonal level normal. We know very well that hormones get disturbed during various human emotions such as anger and love. Meditation helps controlling brain chemicals and neurotransmission. There are various types of meditations and you can perform any of one that gives you peace of mind. Meditation along with Yoga brings stability in the mind, body and soul.

By Ryan English

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/738438

Lower Back Pain Treatment - Is Yoga Safe?

Lower back pain is insidious and can be debilitating. it is also quite scary, since the spine is the nerve center of your entire body and damage to it can lead to partial or even complete paralysis. it is not something to be taken lightly, and not something to go the do it yourself route with.

That is why doing yoga as treatment is such a risk unless you have been directly prescribed to do so by a doctor or a licensed chiropractor. While yoga in general is a good idea - it improves muscle tone, increases flexibility and blood flow, and is good for your blood pressure as well - specifically doing yoga as a lower back pain treatment can be a risky proposition.

You are not a doctor, so you do not know if your lower back pain is because of something as simple as having slept wrong and pulled a muscle, or if you have slipped a disc, or even if you have some sort of degenerative condition that yoga will actually exacerbate rather than help. And bear in mind, your body does not always register pain when you are abusing it. You may even find yourself in less pain after yoga but actually have done some structural damage. That is the last thing you want.

So now that you are properly warned, it is time to educate yourself on the different kind of yoga that can be done as a lower back pain treatment, and all the other options there are out there. Of course, Yoga itself is not just one particular set of stretches or poses. There are different kinds practiced in different ways for different reasons, and finding out just which one is best for your aching back or shoulders is a matter of consulting a licensed professional.

That said, most back pain is caused by improper posture. If That is the case for you, then your best starting point is Hatha Yoga, a style and technique of Yoga that focuses on posture as a means of physical purification and restoration. It was created in the 15th century by the Yogi Swatmarama, and he took the word "Hatha" as its descriptor because "ha" means sun and "tha" means moon in Sanskrit. The idea was to strike a true, unencumbered balance between the two - just as that should be your goal when practicing yoga as a back pain treatment.

Of course, fixing your posture will not do much if you have slipped a disc or some other similarly gruesome injury. That is why you need to be diligent and realistic about what will work as a lower back pain treatment and what will just make it worse. So remember, step one is see your doctor.

By Noel DCosta
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4047191

Health Treatment Through Yoga

Yoga has proved itself as the factor to regain health and remain juvenile. Even in the Western World there is a wave of persons practicing Yoga in their daily life. There are success stories where individuals have sorted out their issues and manage stress through yoga. Yoga in fact is an ancient technique to optimize the mind and body and maintaining the health equilibrium. Today in the USA alone there are several Yoga centers where numerous peoples from all classes and standards are practicing Yoga.

So now what exactly the Yoga is? To understand the right meaning of Yoga along with its significance we have to understand the human anatomy. Biologically our body consists of several systems - Nervous System, Digestive System, Circulatory System, Excretory System & Muscular system etc. Whenever we are ill or fell ill there is some mishap with our systems. For example if we are caught up with influenza which is a disease caused by a microbe, we take antibiotic and all clear. But what about chronic diseases like stress, constipation, low eyesight, poor memory concentration, sleeplessness these are not caused by any microbe (disease carrying organism). So these are not considered as diseases but some sort of maladies or malfunctioning as:

o Constipation

o Hypertension (High Blood pressure)

o Hypotension (Low Blood pressure)

o Indigestion

o Tension

o Depression

o Stress

o Tiredness

o Obesity

o Eyesight weakness

o Asthma

o Migraine

o Insomnia etc.

All these are caused due to malfunctioning of our body systems which I have aforesaid. Though there exist the allopathic treatments for all of these disturbances, yet they are fully accompanied by several side effects. So there are alternatives - acupressure, ayurveda and one of the best alternatives considered is "YOGA". Yoga helps in maintaining body systems functioning properly. Any malfunction could be cured if an individual practiced Yoga regularly under an expert trainer.

The basic question - what Yoga comprises and how to initiate it. The answer - Yoga is an ancient system of treatment and not exactly the treatment but the method to keep your body and mind in normal / optimize phase. Pantajali (considered as Yoga's Guru) in his book on Yoga has explained several ways of performing Yoga. Yoga comprises of Asanas and Dhyana - Body postures and Meditation respectively.

Body postures includes several postures of body either standing or lying down in different ways in order to make the muscles and body parts press and relax. Meditation is of the most used and tested way of treating several mental problems including stress. In meditation there is a concentration equilibrium maintained between body and mind and the stage comes when an individual feels himself absence not physically but mentally. This way there is some sort of effect of secretion of brains nerves and a person feels relax and active.

Ultimately yoga is the best tool to fight against the bodily deformities/malfunctions and if practiced regularly could cure even the most chronic situations.

By Singh Vineet

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/698638