The two areas of research, that are
really cutting-edge currently one of
them is neuroimaging and what we're
finding is that these meditative
practices can indeed change brain
activity not only that but over time you
actually change brain structure through
what's called brain plasticity.
And that
means you end up with a brain that is
conducive to the benefits and the
practices that come along with
contemplative practices like yoga and
meditation and you can see changes in
the stress system as reflected in the
nervous system.
The other cutting-edge
area of research in yoga is a molecular
biological approach there are studies
that show that a major neurotransmitter
is affected after a single yoga class
and there's other studies that show that
you actually enhance gene activity
that's good for you.
Things like immune response is improved
and you down regulate gene activity that
is sometimes bad for you if you're under
chronic stress things like inflammation
so we're starting to see that that yoga
is not just a hobby not just something
that you practice on the side this is
real biological stuff.
You're really
changing the activity of neurons in the
brain you're changing function within
the body at the cellular and even the
molecular level.