Amy Weintraub, author of "Yoga and Depression," gives workshops showing how the breathing and exercises of yoga can help restore the body's natural biochemical balance, writes Juanita Westaby in the Grand Rapids Press. Weintrab doesn't claim yoga can replace medication, only that it can manage mood.
Yoga may soothe depression, anxiety.
For some people, medication may be the only way they can get up and roll out that yoga mat," Weintraub said. But eventually yoga -- combined with good breathing technique and a skillful teacher -- will raise the "feel-good" hormones of oxytocin and prolactin and reduce cortisol, the stress hormone.
See also, "Yoga Increases Oxytocin Levels."
