Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Perceived Stress, Resilience, And Wellbeing In Seasoned Isha Yoga Practitioners Compared To Matched Controls During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Preeti Upadhyay, Shilpa Narayanan, Tanvi Khera, Lauren Kelly, Pooja A. Mathur, Akshay Shanker, Lena Novack, Ruth Pérez-Robles, Kim A. Hoffman, Multiple Additional Authors

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Yoga practices, including breathing, meditation, and posture protocols (asanas), have been shown to facilitate physical and mental wellbeing.

Methods: Seasoned yoga practitioners were recruited from the Isha Foundation. Recruitment of the comparison group was achieved using snowball sampling and were not yoga practitioners. Participants in the non-yoga group were randomized to a 3-min Isha practice or a comparator group asked to perform 15-min of daily reading. Participants completed a series of web-based surveys (REDCap) at baseline, 6, and 12 weeks. These surveys include validated scales and objective questions on COVID-19 infection and medical history. The validated questionnaires assess for: …

Perceived Stress And Salivary Biomarkers In Educators: Comparison Among Three Stress Reduction Activities, Doreen Wagner, Sharon M. Pearcey

Faculty and Research Publications

Background: The teaching profession is a potentially stressful occupation with up to 30% of all novice teachers leaving the profession and annual teacher turnover is higher when compared with turnover of all other occupations. This study investigated the effects of a one-time stress reduction activity (meditation, yoga, or aerobic exercise) in university and K-12 educators who were part of one-day seminar on Stress Reduction.

Methods: Participants (N = 26) self-selected their stress reduction activity, completed a demographic questionnaire, educator stress self-assessment tool, and visual analogue scales indicating current stress levels. Salivary cortisol and amylase levels were measured before, immediately after, …

Determining The Effectiveness Of Nonpharmacological Treatment Modalities For Adult Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: An Integrative Review, Sydia Nichole Spence

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Chronic low back pain continues to be a major health issue, affecting a significant percentage of the population worldwide. It is one of the major contributors to long-term disability. People with ongoing and recurrent low back pain experience lowered quality of life, long-term disability, lost productivity, and medical costs due to urgent and emergency care visits. Pharmacological treatment modalities often present with serious safety concerns, ineffectiveness due to limited evidence-based studies, undesirable side effects, and the possibility of addiction. Therefore, many clinicians and patients seek alternative approaches to remedy persistent low back pain. Various nonpharmacological therapies have shown favorable results …

Saliva Cortisol In Girls With Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Dance And Yoga Intervention, Elin Areskog Sandberg, Anna Duberg, Ulrika Lorenzon Fagerberg, Evalotte Morelius, Stefan Särnblad

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) are common among girls and has been associated with stress. Cortisol is one of the major stress hormones. Dance and yoga have been shown to reduce abdominal pain among girls with FAPDs. Aim: To investigate the effect of an 8-month intervention with dance and yoga on cortisol levels in saliva among girls with FAPDs. Methods: A total of 121 girls aged 9–13 years with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or functional abdominal pain were included in the study. Participants were randomized into an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group attended a combined …