Yoga regulates the immune response during stress
Yoga regulates the immune response during the stress. In today’s fast-paced life the constant presence of stress can jeopardize your health. You need to be aware of this.
Stress and immune system
How does the stress affect the immune response? The immune system is a network of glands, nodes, and organs. It protects the body from bacteria and viruses. It requires a constant supply of nutrients to maintain its function.
What can affect the immune system? Toxins in the environment, poor diet, lack of or excessive exercise, and, guess what? Stress.
The effects of stress on the immune responses
The stress on the immune system is mediated by a complex “communication” between the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. The mediators of these interactions are neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, hormones, and cytokines.
The effects of stress on the immune responses result in:
- Alterations in the Number of Immune Cells. It is called “Immunosenescence”. This alterations dysregulates the immune function and inflammatory processes
- Cytokine Dysregulation. It is a marker of difficulties in aging, as it links to an inability to control systemic inflammation
The effects of stress on the immune system responses. How to manage it?
The ability to mentally handle stress in everyday life alleviates the activation of the endocrine system. This, in turn, increases the effectiveness of the immune system. This is the union between body and mind.
The reflection of the union of the body and mind is what differentiates yoga from other forms of exercise. Yoga is meant to prepare the body to achieve tranquility of the mind.
Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra better describes the goal of yoga. He wrote “Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha“. That means yoga is the cessation of all mind’s fluctuations.
Yoga creates a sense of wellbeing. It boosts feelings of relaxation. It improves concentration and self-confidence. There are several studies supporting these results from the practice of Yoga.
You can read more at this link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10365315/
Yoga boost self-awareness and because of that you can better deal with the stress response. It provides more results in stress, anxiety and health management than relaxation.
You can read more at this link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17544857/
Tools available for you with “FRY. First Responders’ Yoga. The Book”
An excerpt of “FRY First Responders Yoga. The Book” is below. You can download it at this link: https://www.frycanada.com/books/#Books
“The HPA axis works in a straightforward manner of managing the neurological and endocrine systems to activate the fight-flight-freeze response, also known as the stress response.
When the fight-flight-freeze response is activated there is a release of corticotropin-releasing hormone, known as CRH. When this hormone binds to receptors in the pituitary gland it releases the ACTH (adrenocorticotropic) hormone.
This hormone then binds to the adrenal cortex, stimulating the release of cortisol from the adrenals. After a stressful event, in which the fight-flight-freeze response is activated, cortisol is continuously released throughout the body for several hours.
The reduction of what we perceive as stress and anxiety can be modulated by yoga practice as it can modulate your stress response systems, as medical evidence has shown.
Modulating your stress response means emphasizing the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest response, over the sympathetic nervous system, the stress response.
The physiological benefits of that modulation are easy to understand now that you have read the differences between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system in Chapter 3: reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, easing breathing and also increasing the heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly, an ability First Responders need to develop.“
That is what we do with FRY. Sign up to FRY The APP and start your journey to your Mind-Body Wellness and Resilience.
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