Stress and the Autonomic Nervous System: Implication of Yoga

Abstract

Modern day stressful life has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various cardiovascular, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. Research in this field has shown significant reduction of stress-induced progress of these disorders using various life style modifications involving alternative and complementary therapies. Yoga is a cumulative physical and mental practices including diet and lifestyle that originated in India and is a potential antidote to the modern day stressful living. Exploration of the physiological benefits of yoga has increased tremendously in the last few decades resulting in the plethora of scientific studies involving different physiological measures in healthy volunteers and patients of various disorders. Among these, autonomic functional assessment remains a prime parameter because of wider regulation of autonomic nervous system functions over all visceral systems of the body. Through its two limbs (sympathetic and parasympathetic) autonomic nervous system regulates involuntary visceral organs and systems of the body, which is critical in maintaining the homeostasis of all the physiological functions. This homeostasis is altered in various disease conditions most of which resulted because of the increased stress, a product of modern day lifestyle. Yoga is perfect antidote for the stress, effectively tackling the dreaded effects of stress on physiological systems mainly acting through modulating sympathovagal balance to maintain the homeostasis and restoring health. Yoga achieves this balance by regulating the autonomic system and its functions and plenty of scientific studies conducted over the last few decades in various disorders have reaffirmed it. Although we have general idea as to how yoga modulates the sympathovagal balance improving clinical condition, we need to have more long-term, in-depth, well-controlled studies not only to understand these complex interactions of yoga and autonomic functions but also to provide scientific credibility to yoga research in the scientific community. These steps would hopefully enable mankind to lead a disease-free healthy life style effectively to achieve meaningfully the purpose of one’s life.