Grow Up, Grow Old... Just Grow!

Yoga helps by :

Regulating Hormonal Balance: Through specific asanas and breath control (pranayama), yoga stimulates glands such as the thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal glands. This helps maintain balanced hormone levels, which are crucial for bone health (e.g., parathyroid hormone and calcitonin for calcium regulation) and blood cell production (e.g., erythropoietin from the kidneys).

Reducing Stress: Yoga reduces levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Chronic high cortisol can lead to bone density loss and other metabolic issues. By promoting relaxation and lowering stress, yoga helps preserve bone strength and supports tissue health.

Boosting Circulation: Yoga practices improve blood circulation, ensuring that oxygen and nutrients reach tissues effectively. This enhanced circulation supports the renewal of blood cells and tissue health.

Enhancing Metabolism: Yoga sequences that focus on gentle movements and breath control can stimulate metabolism, supporting processes related to bone growth, tissue repair, and general energy maintenance.

Improving Sleep and Recovery: Poses that promote relaxation contribute to better sleep. Quality sleep is essential for proper endocrine function and the body's natural repair processes.

We often associate growth with childhood, but our body continues various growth and regenerative processes well into adulthood and senior years.

For instance, our bones are constantly renewing through a balanced process of breaking down old bone and building new bone. This remodelling can renew the entire skeleton approximately every 10 years.

Blood production also maintains a dynamic balance, with the body constantly replacing blood cells at different rates to ensure overall health. Most tissues, like skin, blood vessels, and the gut lining, renew themselves regularly.

Additionally, neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells in some areas of the brain) and muscle adaptation are ongoing processes throughout life.

While these processes are more vigorous in childhood, adults and seniors can promote them through physical and mental stimulation, a nutrient-rich diet, and stress reduction.

Incorporating yoga into daily life supports hormonal health and quality sleep, nurturing bone, blood, tissue growth, and overall well-being.

Further Reading

Where to Start : How Yoga Works

The Importance of Breath : The Life Force

Do What You Can : Not What Others Can

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