Yoga Boosts Stress-Busting Hormone and Reduces Pain

What's up with your cortisol? If you have fibromyalgia, chances are, your cortisol is probably low. Just what is cortisol? Cortisol affects many bodily systems that is produced by the adrenal gland. Researchers have found that fibromyalgia patients respond to stress by producing less cortisol than do healthy people. It isn't clear why, but it may have to do with a problem with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which controls cortisol production. Adding corticosteroids doesn't seem to help, but new research about yoga is showing promise.

Since women with fibromyalgia have lower-than-average cortisol levels, and it contributes to pain, fatigue and stress sensitivity. According to the study, participants' saliva revealed elevated levels of total cortisol following a program of 75 minutes of hatha yoga twice weekly over the course of eight weeks.

The study's lead author, Kathryn Curtis, a PhD student in York's Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, described the findings. "We saw their levels of mindfulness increase -- they were better able to detach from their psychological experience of pain." Mindfulness is a form of active mental awareness that is rooted in the Buddhist traditions. Mindfulness can be achieved by paying total attention to the present moment with a non-judgmental awareness of both inner and outer experiences.

"Yoga promotes this concept -- that we are not our bodies, our experiences, or our pain. This is extremely useful in the management of pain," she says. "Moreover, our findings strongly suggest that psychological changes in turn affect our experience of physical pain."

Source:
Kathryn Curtis, Anna Osadchuk, Joel Katz. An eight-week yoga intervention is associated with improvements in pain, psychological functioning and mindfulness, and changes in cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia. Journal of Pain Research, 2011; : 189 DOI: 10.2147/JPR.S22761