Natrual Ways to Reduce Anxiety – Part 2

Having explained what anxiety is, I want to look at how people can help themselves to reduce their anxiety levels.

Whether you suffer from occasional anxious thoughts to a full blow anxiety disorder yoga can be helpful.  Once study found that women who practiced yoga twice a week for two months reduced their anxiety levels significantly.

Another scientific study found that regular yoga was more effective than walking for improving the mood and anxiety levels in healthy people.  Current thinking is that Yoga may work by boosting the levels of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutryic acid) in the brain – which acts as an inhibitor in the brain reducing anxiety.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19341989

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20722471

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