"Frazzled workers take heed -- a short, intention-filled break can offer significant health benefits. Alarmed by the up to 50 percent higher risk for heart attack associated with chronic work stress, researchers in Australia assessed the impact of just 15 minutes of in-office yoga or meditation. While participants did either chair yoga, guided meditation, or went about work as usual, the researchers measured such health variables as perceived stress, blood pressure, respiration rate, and heart rate variability (HRV -- a predictor of cardiac and overall health). Compared with those who took no break, the yoga and meditation groups showed significant improvements in each of these variables. Chair yoga and meditation produced similar improvements in HRV, respiration, and perceived stress, while meditation had a greater impact on blood pressure."
The abstract for the study is at:
No comments:
Post a Comment