Yoga, with its combination of mind, body, and spirit, might provide an answer for people with mood disorders such as anxiety or depression. It appears that yoga helps increase the brain chemical GABA, which often is at low levels in people with mood disorders. Here is an excerpt of a news article about the link between yoga and depression:
The study involved 19 people who practiced Iyengar yoga, a type of Hatha yoga, and 15 people who walked at an average pace for one hour, three times a week, for 12 weeks.
Participants filled out standard mood questionnaires throughout the study. MRI images of their brains were taken at the start of the study and at the end of the 12 weeks. Then, participants did one more hour of yoga or walking, depending on which intervention they’d been assigned to, followed by one more scan.
The people who practiced yoga reported greater improvements in mood and greater decreases in anxiety than the walking group.
Also, GABA levels showed a trend toward an increase in the yoga group from the second to third scan, but not in the walking group.
Streeter tells WebMD that the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) commonly used to treat depression and other mood disorders also increase GABA levels.
Although the study only involved people without psychiatric problems, this suggests that yoga postures may be helpful in treating people who have depression or anxiety and have low GABA levels, she says.