Mental and Physical Benifits of Yoga; Psychological Benifits of Yoga

   Maintaining a regular yoga practice can provide physical and mental health benefits

Physical and Mental Benefits of Yoga

Yoga has been practiced for around 5,000 years. While yoga was initially a spiritual discipline, the practice of yoga today, like it has always done, focuses on creating a balance between mind and body. Yoga is practiced by 55 million Americans on a daily basis, with millions more picking it up during the epidemic.

 

Yoga can be practiced in a variety of ways, including alone, in group courses, or digitally, but all incorporate physical positions, regulated breathing, and meditation or relaxation. Those who practice the warrior pose or downward-facing dog on a daily basis will attest to the numerous advantages of yoga.

Physical benefits of Yoga

You don't have to take a yogi's word for it; a growing corpus of medical evidence reveals that yoga has a variety of physical advantages, including: 

• ·         Strength and flexibility have improved. 
• ·         improved posture and balance  
• ·         Reduced back pain
• ·          Reduced symptoms of arthritis  
• ·         Improved heart health and reduced inflammation
• ·         improved breathing and lung function
• ·         Relaxation and sleep improvement

Mental benefits of Yoga

Aside from its physical advantages, one of the most visible characteristics of yoga is its capacity to aid people with their mental health.

Researchers have been examining the influence of yoga on various facets of mental health since the 1970s, notably as a therapy for anxiety and depression. The Harvard Mental Health Letter gives solid evidence that regular yoga practice will:

·         Reduce the negative effects of stress 

·         Anxiety and depression relief

·         Be a self-soothing method in the same way that meditation, relaxation, and exercise are.

·         Increase your energy.

One of the research examines a group of women who identify as 'emotionally troubled.' For 12 weeks, they attended two 90-minute yoga courses per week. At the end of the trial, depression ratings improved by 50%, anxiety levels improved by 30%, and overall well-being scores increased by 65% when compared to the control group that did not engage in the lessons.

Yoga and hormones

Out with the bad chemicals—According to one research, yoga decreases two of your body's stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline, lowering stress and even acting as an antidepressant. By engaging our parasympathetic nerve system, yoga can help reduce our fight, flight, or freeze reaction. This reduces chronic stress patterns, calms the mind, focuses attention, and improves concentration.

As one works through the postures and positions of yoga, the brain increases the amounts of feel-good chemicals such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphin, which are responsible for feelings of relaxation and contentment.

Physiological response

Because yoga lowers the body's stress response system, it also soothes physiological responses, lowering heart rate, and blood pressure, and easing breathing. Yoga has also been shown to enhance heart rate variability, which is a measure of the body's capacity to adapt to stress more flexibly.

Yoga for quality of life

Why do individuals do yoga? More than 90% of yoga practitioners practice for flexibility, stress alleviation, health, and physical fitness. Yoga encourages self-reflection, kindness and self-compassion, and ongoing growth and self-awareness.

Yoga provides a disciplined technique to relax, cleanse the mind, and become quiet for individuals who suffer from anxiety or despair. It also helps in the improvement of mental health and quality of life.

Yoga, like it has been for thousands of years, maybe a powerful tool for establishing harmony between mind and body. 

Learn about the many styles of yoga and how they may be utilized to help you stay fit.

The osteopathic approach to wellness, like yoga, emphasizes your body's inherent drive toward health and self-healing.

"The goal of yoga is to cultivate strength, awareness, and harmony in both the mind and the body," Natalie Nevins, DO, a board-certified osteopathic family physician and certified Kundalini Yoga instructor in Hollywood, California, says.

While there are over 100 distinct styles of yoga or schools, most sessions incorporate breathing exercises, meditation, and taking postures (also known as asana or poses) that stretch and flex specific muscle groups.

Learn about the many styles of yoga and how they may be utilized to help you stay fit.

The osteopathic approach to wellness, like yoga, emphasizes your body's inherent drive toward health and self-healing.

“The purpose of yoga is to build strength, awareness, and harmony in both the mind and body,” explains Natalie Nevins, DO, a board-certified osteopathic family physician and certified Kundalini Yoga instructor in Hollywood, California.

While there are over 100 distinct styles of yoga or schools, most sessions incorporate breathing exercises, meditation, and taking postures (also known as asana or poses) that stretch and flex specific muscle groups.

Physical benefits

"Yoga's relaxation methods can help with chronic pain, such as lower back pain, arthritis, headaches, and carpal tunnel syndrome," notes Dr Nevins. "Yoga can also help with blood pressure and sleeplessness."

Yoga also has the following physical advantages:

• enhanced adaptability
• improved muscle tone and strength
• better breathing, energy, and vitality
• maintaining a healthy metabolism
• slimming down
• Cardiovascular and circulatory health
• enhanced athletic performance
• protection from injury

mental benefits

Aside from the physical advantages, one of the most important aspects of yoga is how it helps people manage stress, which has been shown to have negative consequences on the body and mind. "Stress can manifest itself in a variety of ways," adds Dr. Nevins, "including back or neck discomfort, sleeping issues, migraines, drug misuse, and an inability to focus." “Yoga can be very effective in developing coping skills and reaching a more positive outlook on life.”

Yoga's combination of meditation and breathing can aid in mental well-being. According to Dr Nevins, "regular yoga practice develops mental clarity and tranquillity; enhances bodily awareness; reduces chronic stress patterns; calms the mind; concentrates attention; and sharpens concentration." She adds that body and self-awareness are especially important "since they can aid with early diagnosis of physical disorders and enable for early preventive intervention."

Yoga helps in developing a Better Body Image

Yoga cultivates inner consciousness. It directs your attention to your body's current capabilities. It aids in the development of breath and mental and physical power. It has nothing to do with physical appearance.

Mirrors are not usually found in yoga studios. This allows people to focus their attention within rather than on how a stance or the people around them appear. According to surveys, persons who practiced yoga were more conscious of their bodies than those who did not. They were also more satisfied with and less critical of their bodies. Yoga has become an essential component in the treatment of eating disorders and programs that promote healthy body image and self-esteem for these reasons.

Yoga helps in becoming a mindful eater

Mindfulness is defined as paying attention to what you are feeling in the current moment without passing judgment on yourself. 

Yoga has been demonstrated to promote awareness not only in class but also in other aspects of a person's life.  

Mindful eating is defined by researchers as a nonjudgmental awareness of the physical and emotional feelings connected with eating. They developed a questionnaire to measure mindful eating using these behaviors: 

Consuming even when full

·         Being aware of how food looks, tastes, and smells

·         Eating in response to environmental cues, such as the sight or smell of food

·         Eating when sad or stressed (emotional eating)

·         Eating when distracted by other things

 

According to their ratings, the researchers discovered that persons who practiced yoga were more aware eaters. Better mindful eating scores were connected with both years of yoga practice and the number of minutes of practice per week. Yoga practice makes you more conscious of how your body feels. This increased awareness may be carried over to dinner, as you relish each bite or sip, noting how food smells, tastes, and feels in your mouth.

Weight Loss and Maintainance

Yoga practitioners and mindful eaters are more in tune with their bodies. They may be more responsive to hunger and fullness cues.

People who practiced yoga for at least 30 minutes once a week for at least four years gained less weight during middle adulthood, according to the study. Overweight people actually dropped weight. In general, those who practiced yoga had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) than those who did not. This was linked to awareness by the researchers. Mindful eating can help you develop a better connection with food and eating.

Enhancing fitness

Yoga is well-known for its ability to relieve mental and physical strain. However, it can have an effect on a person's ability to exercise.

 

The researchers looked at a small sample of inactive people who had never done yoga before. Participants exhibited improved muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, and cardio-respiratory fitness after eight weeks of practicing yoga at least twice a week for a total of 180 minutes.

Cardiovascular benefits

Several modest studies have revealed that yoga has a favorable effect on cardiovascular risk factors: it helps persons with hypertension reduce their blood pressure. Yoga most likely restores "baroreceptor sensitivity." This helps the body sense imbalances in blood pressure and maintain balance.

Another study discovered that practicing yoga improved lipid profiles in both healthy and coronary heart disease patients. It also decreased the requirement for drugs in persons with non-insulin-dependent diabetes who had high blood sugar levels. Because of its cardiovascular and stress-relieving effects, yoga is increasingly being included in many cardiac rehabilitation programmes.

Improve your IQ with Yoga; Excercise to Boost Your Memory

   Improve your IQ with Yoga

Your IQ is not your birthmark for the rest of your life. There are several ways to boost your IQ if you decide to do so. All you need to do is be sincere and persistent. The drive to adapt, learn, and succeed gives rise to the concept of expanded intellect.

Clinical studies have demonstrated that frequent yoga practice can improve your IQ and memory. Yoga has been shown in studies to improve not just fitness, health, coordination, response time, and memory, but also IQ.

How can yoga help?

Are you aware that low amounts of oxygen might impair your brain function? Your brain, like all essential organs, requires enough oxygen.

Yogic breathing practices (Pranayama), particularly deep breathing techniques, enhance the brain's oxygen supply. This improves your focus and memory.

 

Yoga teaches us how to focus by utilizing tried-and-true body-awareness techniques. When we are more concentrated, we are more efficient and have more energy for the work at hand. People who practice Transcendental Meditation demonstrate the ability to solve problems and acquire and recall information better probably because they're less distracted by their thoughts.

Research speaks

According to the Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation in Bangalore, India, comparative research of three distinct Yoga modules on Logical Memory in school children found that uni-nostril breathing boosts spatial memory scores without lateralized effects. As a result, the current study examined the impact of an integrated approach to yoga module (IAYM) on schoolchildren's performance in a logical memory test.

 

This study looked at the efficacy of IAY on logical memory in schoolchildren who went through a 10-day residential yoga program. The Wechsler memory scale was used to test logical memory, and all three groups improved significantly after their individual therapies. There was no significant difference between the groups in either males or females.

Yoga can help you strengthen your memory, battle forgetfulness, and raise your IQ.

 

Yoga activities sharpen the brain functions of attention, cognition, sensory information processing, and visual perception. Hatha yoga, which consists of asanas, pranayama, meditation, and Om chanting, increases blood flow to the brain. This helps to relax the mind and improves attention.

 

Memory power is given a boost, while also improving the ability to maintain focus and concentration.

 

US Health Insurance System

 How Does the US Health System Work?

Healthcare in the United States is organized in a complex bureaucracy. While in the rest of the world healthcare facilities are owned mostly by governments or by private sector businesses, in the US a large share of hospitals and clinics are owned by private non-profit organizations.

Yet, the United States is the country that has the highest healthcare expenditures in the world. While these expenditures are covered in a large share by public payers as by Federal institutions, or State and local governments, they can also be covered by private insurance and individual payments.

At the same time, unlike most developed nations, the US health system does not provide health care to its entire population. As there is no single nationwide system of health insurance, the United States primarily relies on employers who voluntarily provide health insurance coverage to their employees and dependents.

In addition, the government has programs that tend to cover healthcare expenses for the fragile parts of society as the elderly, disabled, and the poor. These programs differ from one another, and all have a specific kind of people that are subjects to.

Getting health insurance in the US is not an easy thing. Someone may think that once you have money everything is easy peasy, but in fact, things are a bit more complicated. One must be very careful and look out to pick the right insurance.

Health Insurance in the United States for non-Citizens

The United States government does not provide health insurance for all its people, and health insurance is not obligatory for those living in the US. It is optional but highly recommended and necessary since health services are very costly, more than in any other country anywhere across the globe.

There are two types of health insurance in the US, private and public. Most people use a combination of both. The US public health insurances are Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

·         Travel insurance for visitors in the USA

·         Health insurance for international students in the USA

·         Health insurance for dependents of international students.

·         Health insurance for J-1 visa holders

·         Health insurance for foreign workers on an H-1B visa

·         Health insurance for dependents on an H-4 visa holders

·         Health insurance for Green Card Holders

·         Health insurance for K1 visa holders

·         Health insurance in the USA for Canadian Expats

The US has the most expensive healthcare in the world. That’s why getting adequate health insurance coverage comes highly recommended.

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Medicare

Medicare is a national health insurance program that dates back to 1966. It provides health insurance for US nationals older than 65 years old, but also for younger people with end-stage renal disease, ALS, and some other disabilities.

Data shows that in 2018, Medicare provided almost 60 million individuals with healthcare in the US, over 51 million of which were older than 65.

The Medicare program is divided into four parts:

·         Part A – which covers hospitals, skilled nursing, and hospice services.

·         Part B – covers outpatient services, including some providers’ services while inpatient at a hospital, outpatient hospital charges

·         Part C – is an alternative called Managed Medicare, which permits patients to select health plans with at least the same service coverage as Part A and B, often the benefits of Part D, and an annual out-of-pocket spend limit which A and B lack. To sign in this part, one must sign in Part A and B first.

·         Part D – covers mostly self-administered prescription drugs.

Medicaid

Medicaid is a federal and state program that helps people with limited income and resources to cover medical costs while covering benefits normally not covered by Medicare, such as nursing home care and personal care services.

It is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for people with low income in the United States. Data shows that the US provided health insurance to 71 million people with low income or disabilities, which is 23% of the total US population.

Children’s Health Insurance Program

Formerly known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), this is a program that covers health insurance for children of families with a modest income, that is not low enough to qualify for Medicaid.

The Affordable Care Act – Obamacare

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a federal statute signed into law by President Obama, which made it mandatory for every citizen to have health insurance or be penalized. The Act subsidizes for low-income families, by taxing healthcare providers and high-income families, as it was designed to lower health care costs while providing better health care for Americans.

The Affordable Care Act allowed parents to ad their children up to the age of 26 to their policies, in a bid to have younger healthy people paying premiums. It also allowed poorer people to get treatment for chronic illnesses instead of using the emergency room.

US Private Health Insurance

There are about a thousand private health insurance providers in the US, with each of them offering different plans at different prices, which largely depend on a person’s medical history. However, while there are individual plans, covering only one person, there are also group plans targeting families in particular.

Usually, there are three types of health insurance in the United States:

·         Traditional fee-for-service health insurance plans which plans are usually the most expensive, that those with an income lower than the average income in the US, have difficulties purchasing. However, these are the best plans as they offer you the most flexibility.

·         Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) offer a limited choice of healthcare providers, yet it also offers lower co-payments and covers the costs of more preventative care. They are evaluated and accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

·         Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) which just like HMOs offer lower co-payments, but they give you more flexibility when selecting a provider, as they give you a list of providers among which you can choose.

How to Choose a Good US Health Insurance Plan?

When looking up a good health insurance plan make sure you ask questions like:

·         Does that plan grant you the right to go to any doctor, hospital, clinic or pharmacy you choose?

·         Are specialists such as eye doctors and dentists covered?

·         Does the plan cover special conditions or treatments such as pregnancy, psychiatric care, and physical therapy?

·         Does the plan cover home care or nursing home care and medications a physician might prescribe?

·         What are the deductibles? Are there any co-payments?

·         What is the most you will have to pay out of your own pocket to cover expenses?

Make sure you also understand how a dispute about a bill or service is handled by your provider, as in some plans, you may be required to have a third party decide how to settle the problem. We recommend the GeoBlue Xplorer plan for foreigners in the United States

Health Insurance Requirements for Foreign Visitors in the US

Though the United States Authorities have not made health insurance mandatory for short-term travelers to the country, as B-1/B-2 visa holders, it is highly recommended for every traveler to get insurance before their trip to the country.

The main reason why you should get insurance is that healthcare in the US is extremely expensive and even a check-up for a simple headache will cost you hundreds of dollars, while a broken limb will cost you thousands.

Health incidents are never foreseen, therefore it is best to be prepared for it and get insurance, so in case of need you save yourself money.

Health Insurance Options for Legal Immigrants

Immigrants that are lawfully present in the United States are eligible to get private health insurance in the US. In addition, lawful immigrants may also be eligible for lower costs on monthly premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs based on their income, as follows:

·         Those with an annual income of 400% of the federal poverty level or below may be eligible for premium tax credits and other savings on Marketplace insurance.

·         Whereas those with annual household income below 100% federal poverty level that is not otherwise eligible for Medicaid are eligible for premium tax credits and other savings on Marketplace insurance, given that they meet all other eligibility requirements.

Most of the time, “qualified non-citizens” are eligible for coverage through Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), given that they meet the income and residency rules of the state where they are based.

“Qualified non-citizens” are considered the following:

·         Lawful permanent residents

·         Asylees, refugees, battered non-citizens & spouses, children, or parents, victims of trafficking and or their spouse, child, sibling, or parent, or individuals with a pending application for a victim of trafficking visa

·         Cuban/Haitian entrants,

·         Those paroled into the US for at least one year

·         Conditional entrant granted before 1980

·         Those granted withholding of deportation and members of a federally recognized Indian Tribe or American Indian born in Canada.

However, most of them will need to wait for 5 years in the US in order to get Medicaid and CHIP coverage in the US, after they get qualified. Refugees and asylees are exempt from the waiting period.

In addition, states have the option to abolish the 5-year waiting period for children and pregnant women so they can be covered by Medicare and CHIP.

You can get a free US health insurance quote here. While you are free to choose the plan that suits you best, we recommend the GeoBlue Xplorer.

Health Insurance Options for Illegal Immigrants

Illegal Immigrants in the US can get health coverage only from private providers, as the US government-funded health insurance does not cover them.

Community centers can provide medical help to undocumented immigrants in the US, which is termed Safety Net Providers if the healthcare seeker can participate in fee-for-service medical assistance.

 

Understanding Your Insurance Policy

Understanding Your Insurance Policy  

An insurance policy is a legal contract between the insurance company (the insurer) and the person(s), business, or entity being insured (the insured). Reading your policy helps you verify that the policy meets your needs and that you understand your and the insurance company’s responsibilities if a loss occurs. Many insureds purchase a policy without understanding what is covered, the exclusions that take away coverage, and the conditions that must be met in order for coverage to apply when a loss occurs. The SCDOI would like to remind consumers that reading and understanding your entire policy can help you avoid problems and disagreements with your insurance company in the event of a loss.

The Basics of an Insurance Contract

There are four basic parts to an insurance contract:

o    Declaration Page

o    Insuring Agreement

o    Exclusions

o    Conditions

It is important to understand that multi-peril policies may have specific exclusions and conditions for each type of coverage, such as collision coverage, medical payment coverage, liability coverage, and so on. You will need to make sure that you read the language for the specific coverage that applies to your loss.

The Declaration Page

This page is usually the first part of an insurance policy. It identifies who is the insured, what risks or property are covered, the policy limits, and the policy period (i.e. the time the policy is in force).

For example, the Declarations Page of an automobile policy will include the description of the vehicle covered (e.g. make/model, VIN number), the name of the person covered, the premium amount, and the deductible (the amount you will have to pay for a claim before an insurer pays its portion of a covered claim).

Similarly, the Declarations Page of a life insurance policy will include the name of the person insured and the face amount of the life insurance policy (e.g. $25,000, $50,000, etc.).

The Insuring Agreement

This is a summary of the major promises of the insurance company and states what is covered. In the Insuring Agreement, the insurer agrees to do certain things such as paying losses for covered perils, providing certain services, or agreeing to defend the insured in a liability lawsuit. There are two basic forms of an insuring agreement:

o    Named–perils coverage, under which only those perils specifically listed in the policy are covered. If the peril is not listed, it is not covered.

o    All–risk coverage, under which all losses are covered except those losses specifically excluded. If the loss is not excluded, then it is covered. Life insurance policies are typically all-risk policies.

The Exclusions

Exclusions take coverage away from the Insuring Agreement. The three major types of Exclusions are:

o    Excluded perils or causes of loss

o    Excluded losses

o    Excluded property

Typical examples of excluded perils under a homeowners policy are floods, earthquakes, and nuclear radiation. A typical example of an excluded loss under an automobile policy is damage due to wear and tear. Examples of excluded property under a homeowners policy are personal property such as an automobile, a pet, or an airplane.

The Conditions 

Conditions are provisions inserted in the policy that qualify or place limitations on the insurer’s promise to pay or perform. If the policy conditions are not met, the insurer can deny the claim. Common conditions in a policy include the requirement to file a proof of loss with the company, to protect property after a loss, and to cooperate during the company’s investigation or defense of a liability lawsuit.

Definitions 

Most policies have a Definitions section, which defines specific terms used in the policy. It may be a stand-alone section or part of another section. In order to understand the terms used in the policy, it is important to read this section.

Endorsements and Riders

An insurer may change the language or coverage of a policy at the time of the policy renewal. Endorsements and Riders are written provisions that add to, delete, or modify the provisions in the original insurance contract. In most states, the insurer is required to send you a copy of the changes to your policy. It is important that you read all Endorsements or Riders so you understand how your policy has changed and if the policy is still adequate to meet your needs.

Want to Review Your Policy? 

To obtain a copy of your insurance policy, please contact your insurance agent or company.