User:Sdesigh/sandbox

Placed in the examples and classes section of the alternative medicine page. Back links were added in the stress management and resilience section of the stress management page (with added text), scientific research section of the mindfulness page (with added text), and scientific studies section of the meditation page (with added text).

Yoga and mindfulness
Yoga has been practiced by people for centuries. The benefits of practicing yoga have been addressed by the Hindu philosophers, but only recently have there been studies to provided evidence and support for those benefits. There are different forms of yoga such as the Ashtang yoga, Hatha yoga, Raja yoga etc... Hatha yoga is a physical form of exercise that focuses on stretching and strengthening body parts. In the context of Hatha yoga, meditation can serve as a supplemental component. Raja yoga takes more of a meditation form of yoga that focuses on breathing control. Ashtang yoga which specifically means eight limbs are responsible for an individuals moral and ethical conduct as well as self-discipline. This type of yoga may serve as an ethical principles towards one's life and nature.

The combination of complementary therapies such as yoga and mindfulness meditation has been found to help problems with addiction of drugs, alcohol, and stress. Statistics show that 27 million people of the world’s population have drug addiction problems, nearly 1.2 billion people smoke, and relapse rates for alcohol consumption are as high as 87%. Stress itself can be experienced in many forms by an individual. Furthermore, problems with drug addiction, smoking, and alcohol consumption may all contribute to stress. Yoga and mindfulness may serve as a mind-body medicine to address such problems.

Yoga comes from Hindi philosophy whereas mindfulness meditation comes from the Buddhist philosophy. Furthermore, a program adapted from the Buddhist philosophy focusing on sensory awareness is called the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Though MBSR’s goal has always been to rise patients tolerance levels at different uncomfortable states, the program have changed the curriculum several times in the past. A recent study conducted on 168 individuals involved in substance use disorder showed that this 8 week program drastically lowered the rates of drug use at the end of 2 months. This intervention program uses the combination of meditation training and mindful movement that may target areas of the brain vulnerable to addiction such as the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. In the case of smoking cessation, it has been found that mindfulness training twice a week for over a month reduced the amount of cigarettes by the smokers when comparing to the Smoking program by the American Lung Association Freedom. In addition to this study, the abstinence rate was also significantly high after 17 weeks of training. Lastly, mindfulness training may significantly reduce re-activity to stress when compared to therapies such as the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).