Lie down on your stomach with your legs straight together. As you inhale, grab your ankles and lift your chest and knees off the floor to create an arch.

Keep lifting your chest off the floor until your feet and back are close to each other and your pelvis is pressing into the floor. Do not stress or compress your lower back. Keep it as relaxed as possible. Hold your breath or breathe normally during the pose. Hold the pose for 15-20 seconds.

Then come down to the starting pose. Now with your forehead touching the floor, lift your back in a way that it creates a hunch. Stay in this position and breathe normally for 10-15 seconds. Repeat the whole process one more time.

Benefits: Apart from being a great posture to help relieve back pain, it helps correct hunchback and round shoulders.

It helps balance all the lower and upper back muscles that are support your spine. It is also good for the liver, spleen and kidneys. It awakens the navel energy keeping the internal organs healthy.

Spare five minutes every day to lose yourself in the healing powers of yoga.

Dhanurasana:

The bow posture reduces gastric problems.

Eliminates abdominal fat.

Vrjkshasana:

The tree posture gives a sense of balance.

Bhujangasana:

The snake posture tones the liver and kidney.

Reduces backache.

Stimulates appetite.

Eliminates constipation.

Chakrasana:

Strengthens spinal cord.

Maintarns abdominal organs.

Reduces fat.

Shabasana

Maintains the liver and pancreas

Reduces gastric problems.

Tad asana:

The mountain posture works on tIn body and nerves.

Increases concentration power

Janu Shirshasana:

Ensures healthy functioning of the kidneys and liver.

Stimulates digestion.

Ushtrasana:

Tones digestive and excretory systems.

Ardha Matsyendrasana:

Recommended for diabetic patients.

Tones up spinal nerves.

Rejuvenates nervous system.

Sarvangasana:

This is the queen of all asanas.

Reduces insomnia.

Remedies menstrual problems.

Gives relief from headaches.

Reduces gastric problems.

Helpful in curing piles and urinary disorders.

Matsyasana:

The fish posture helps in curing ailments like asthma or bronchitis. Rejuvenates thyroid gland.

Shashankasana:

Tones up pelvic muscles.

Improves concentration.

Creates total mental relaxation.

Simhasana:

The lion posture relieves from ailments of the throat, ears, and nose. Helpful in combating tonsillitis. Helps in rectifying stammering problems.

Padmasana:

The lotus posture strengthens spinal cord.

Helpful in building alertness of the mind.

Helps in reducing several physical, nervous and emotional problems.

Shavasana:

The corpse posture relieves stress and strain.

Removes fatigue and calms the mind.

Shirshasana:

Rejuvenates brain cells and nervous system.

Increases memory and thought power.

Vitalizes the mind and body.

Sit straight on the heels. Take a deep breath through your nose and exhale completely through your mouth. Close both your nostrils with your thumbs with all the fingers pointing outward and joined together. Inhale deeply through your mouth and puff up your cheeks. Hold your breath and put your chin against your chest. Now hold position as long as you can. Repeat at least l0tol5times.

Lie down on your back. Raise your legs to 90 degrees, keeping the knees straight. Raise your hips and the trunk off the ground by supporting the body with the hands at the waist. Keep your elbows as close to each other as possible. Close your eyes and relax. Hold it for as long as possible. Breathe normally.

Kapal means forehead and bhati means light. So if you do this kriya regularly, it brings a glow to the face. It’s a purification technique to clean the naadi’s and also calm the mind. It opens up all the blockages from the lungs and also strengthens the nervous system and tones the digestive organs. Sit in any comfortable posture with your back and neck straight in chin mudra and eyes closed. Exhale through nostrils forcefully and while exhaling, push your abdomen in forcefully. Inhale naturally. Repeat this kriya for 5 minutes. For better results, you can do it for 10 minutes.

Place the forearms on the mat in front of you with fingers interlocked. Place the crown of your head on the mat between the interlocked hands. Slowly raise your hips and lift your knees off the ground and straighten your legs, keeping your toes on the floor. Transfer the body weight slowly from the toes on to the head and arms, maintaining a steady balance. Lift your feet off the ground. Bending the knees, gradually raise the calves in a controlled movement. Slowly straighten your knees until the legs are in line with the trunk. Now your whole body is straight in one line.

Washington, Nov 11  : Women are more likely to suffer from depression after stroke than men, according to a large new review of studies.

Post-stroke depression is associated with greater disability, reduced quality of life and an increased risk of death.

In the systematic review, which appears in the November-December issue of the journal Psychosomatics, Brittany Poynter, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Toronto looked at 56 studies on stroke and depression comprising more than 75,000 people, about 12,000 of them women. The time between the stroke and onset of depression ranged from less than two weeks to 15 years.

In women, rates of post-stroke depression ranged from about 6 percent to 78 percent, while in men depression rates ranged from 4.7 percent to about 65 percent.

These findings are important, Poynter said, because women who have had a stroke generally do more poorly than men. They tend to have higher rates of disability and longer hospitalization times. The authors say this might be due in part to higher rates of depression. In addition, “women may have less access to care,” Poynter said.

“People think of stroke as a ‘male’ disease — and it is slightly more common in men —but because it increases with age, more women end up having strokes because they live longer,” said Linda S. Williams, M.D., chief of neurology at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. She is not associated with the review.

“Post-stroke depression is often unrecognized, both by the patient and the provider,” Williams said. “Patients may have symptoms, but they think that’s a natural reaction to having a stroke. Providers may think it is natural that the patient feels down after having this major life event. So there is a watch-and-see approach instead of a more of an aggressive screening-and-treatment approach.”

It is uncertain what the best treatments for post-stroke depression might be.

“There may be multiple treatments beyond antidepressants and counseling, such as exercise, physical rehabilitation and support groups,” Poynter said. “A multimodal approach may be the most effective.”

Washington, Nov 10  : A new study by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers has shown a clear link between depression and a loss of bone mass, leading to osteoporosis and fractures.

The study also showed that the relationship between depression and bone loss is particularly strong among young women.

Hebrew University researchers Prof. Raz Yirmiya, head of the Brain and Behavior Laboratory, and Prof. Itai Bab, head of the Bone Laboratory, assembled the data from all studies on the subject conducted to date, and analyzed them using a special statistical approach called meta-analysis.

They assessed data from 23 research projects conducted in eight countries, comparing bone density among 2,327 people suffering from depression against 21,141 non-depressed individuals.

The results showed clearly that depressed individuals have a substantially lower bone density than non-depressed people and that depression is associated with a markedly elevated activity of cells that breakdown bone (osteoclasts).

The researchers found that the association between depression and bone loss was stronger in women than men, especially young women before the end of their monthly period.

This connection was especially strong in women with clinical depression diagnosed by a psychiatrist, but not in community studies, in which women subjectively identified themselves as being depressed using self-rating questionnaires.

Yirmiya and Bab said: “All individuals psychiatrically diagnosed with major depression are at risk for developing osteoporosis, with depressed young women showing the highest risk. These patients should be periodically evaluated for progression of bone loss and signs of osteoporosis, allowing the use of anti-osteoporotic prophylactic and therapeutic treatments”.

The results were recently reported in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Washington, Nov 10 : A short investment of time in mental training can help you manage pain, concludes a new study.

The study, which examined the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques, found that relatively short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have a significant positive effect on pain management.

Though pain research during the past decade has shown that extensive meditation training can have a positive effect in reducing a person”s awareness and sensitivity to pain, the effort, time commitment, and financial obligations required has made the treatment not practical for many patients.

Now, the new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte shows that a single hour of training spread out over a three day period can produce the same kind of analgesic effect.

The research appears in an article by UNC Charlotte psychologists Fadel Zeidan, Nakia S. Gordon, Junaid Merchant and Paula Goolkasian, in the current issue of The Journal of Pain.

“This study is the first study to demonstrate the efficacy of such a brief intervention on the perception of pain,” noted Fadel Zeidan, a doctoral candidate in psychology at UNC Charlotte and the paper”s lead author.

“Not only did the meditation subjects feel less pain than the control group while meditating but they also experienced less pain sensitivity while not meditating,” the expert added.

Washington, Nov 5  : Yoga may be more effective than standard treatment in reducing chronic low back pain in minority populations, according to a new study.

Individuals from low-income, minority backgrounds with chronic low back pain (CLBP) may be more affected due to disparities in access to treatment.

Although many CLBP patients seek relief from complementary therapies such as yoga, use of these approaches are less common among minorities and individuals with lower incomes or less education.

For the study, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center recruited adults with CLBP from two community health centers that serve racially diverse, low-income neighbourhoods of Boston.

They were randomly assigned to either a standardized 12-week series of hatha yoga classes or standard treatment including doctor”s visits and medications.

As part of the trial, the researchers asked participants to report their average pain intensity for the previous week, how their function is limited due to back pain, and how much pain medication they are taking.

The yoga group participated in 12 weekly 75-minute classes that included postures, breathing techniques, and meditation.

Classes were taught by a team of registered yoga teachers and were limited to eight participants. Home practice for 30 minutes daily was strongly encouraged.

Participants were provided with an audio CD of the class, a handbook describing and depicting the exercises, a yoga mat, strap, and block.

Pain scores for the yoga participants decreased by one-third compared to the control group, which decreased by only 5 percent.

Whereas pain medication use in the control group did not change, yoga participants” use of pain medicines decreased by 80 percent.

Improvement in function was also greater for yoga participants but was not statistically significant.

“Few studies of complementary therapies have targeted minority populations with low back pain,” said lead author Robert B. Saper, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of family medicine at BUSM and director of integrative medicine at Boston Medical Center.

“Our pilot study showed that yoga is well-received in these communities and may be effective for reducing pain and pain medication use,” he added.

The study appears in the November issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine