Today, I'm giving you a behind-the-reporting podcast, the first of its kind on this show, where I'll provide my personal opinion, experience, and added value with information that did not make it into my most recent article for the U.S. News titled How to Start a Yoga Practice for Depression, According to Experts. In the article, I feature Dr. Ken Duckworth, the chief medical officer at the National Alliance of Mental Illness, or NAMI, and author of the book You Are Not Alone. I also speak with Amy Weintraub, someone who attributes her recovery from depression in large part to yoga. While her therapist once told her that she would always struggle with mental health. Weintraub is a published author who has also trained hundreds of yoga teachers how to teach yoga for depression. I interviewed Dr. Patricia Kinzer, Dean of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Nursing, and Judith B. Collins and Joseph M. Tifey, distinguished professor. She researches yoga and mindfulness-based interventions for mental health. I will provide their expert insights, along with my sentiments, for this episode of the Yoga with Jake podcasts. For example, this most recent article that I published on yoga for depression required five months of work, countless interviews, seeking out the best sources I could possibly find, but then coordinating with them, multiple sources who are often very busy and hard to schedule with. And then taking those interviews, which are often hours of conversation, and transmitting them into the most important components. And then there's a series of fact-checking correspondence between myself, my editor, and then circling back to the sources to confirm accuracy after edits. And this is something I liken to a very vigorous peer review process that isn't for the faint of heart for sure. It's picking apart my work basically to make sure it is aligned with the facts and that the experts' work that I am referring to is portrayed in a way that is true to their beliefs and to the topic as a whole. Throughout the process, there's often pages of information that are distilled to the most crucially important information, which is a very important skill, I believe, and a great way to communicate as a science communicator and a journalist. However, I know many of you get your media in long form content, like this podcast, and are interested in going into depth in topics like this one. So let's get into it. Why did I choose this topic, Yoga for Depression? It's a topic that I've written about several times throughout the years, but there's always a new and different angle on this topic. And it comes top of mind because it is such a huge problem for so many people. For those who don't know me, I am a yoga teacher. I've been teaching for over 18 years. I've also been a health journalist for U.S. News and World Report for over a decade, with over 100 articles published linking healthy lifestyle choices to research, which unfortunately often gets lost in a yoga class. And so I love linking the two. And this is one where I've seen many yoga students. I teach primarily yoga for men and athletes, but also in the general population, I've seen a lot of my students and other teacher friends, especially, and even myself, you know, I've seen folks struggle with their mental health throughout the years, come to yoga and find great benefit. And then, you know, there's some that manage to seem to maintain their mental health, while others, the yoga practice just isn't enough to get them over that mental health hump. And so I was very curious to dive back into this topic. I know that yoga is a great way to support mental health. It's evidence-based, affordable, and it's accessible. And it's a lifestyle choice. I believe it's one of the most important things that we could be doing that is endorsed by numerous health organizations. And that's why I chose this topic to feature in my article. When I write these articles, I love to approach them by interweaving someone's personal story to really bring the piece to life. Someone who has real-world experience on the topic. For this article, I feature Amy Weintraub of Tucson, Arizona. I'd like to give a huge shout out to Amy for opening up and being brave enough to share her story truly honestly with me. And so thank you, Amy. I'm super grateful for your complete transparency in talking about this topic. She attributes her recovery from depression in large part to yoga. And what's interesting is while her therapist told her that she'd always struggled with mental health, she's now fully recovered from depression. She hasn't had an episode in as long as she can remember. And she's also a published author on the topic. And she has trained hundreds of teachers how to teach yoga for depression. So here's someone who is not only someone who lived through depression and could speak firsthand about it, but has also now made that her entire career. At age 19, Weintraub, she struggled severely with depression. And after nine years of medication, she felt that nothing was working. Her medication caused anxiety and it made it difficult to her to even function at work. Once Weintraub switched therapist and started practicing yoga, she made a breakthrough with her depression. And let me just say, as a reminder, that you know, yoga is not a cure for depression, but it is a complementary practice that can provide profound benefits for your mental health. Professional mental health support should be the first place to look for help. The first element that I really wanted to get crystal clear on is defining depression. What is depression? Much of this was cut from the article. However, I really wanted to highlight it here because I myself was very curious how one gets diagnosed with actually being depressed. We all feel down and looking back may realize that we could have potentially been depressed, but it often feels like lines are blurred. So I wanted to provide some really crystal clear diagnosis and parameters around depression. For this, I talked to Dr. Ken Duckworth, the chief medical officer at NAMI, and he said that diagnosable clinical depression or major depressive disorder is when you experience persistent symptoms for at least two weeks, or if your symptoms are severe. Here's a quote from Dr. Duckworth. This is all descriptive and very imperfect. When does grief become depression? These are questions that the field never does very well with. They move the goalposts on that. If you look at it over time, that's not something they've done very well at, which I thought was a very interesting insight. So according to the American Psychiatric Association, there are nine symptoms of depression, with sadness being the core experience. If you have at least five of these symptoms for at least two weeks, that is considered clinical depression. These symptoms include feeling sad, irritable, empty, andor hopeless, losing interest or pleasure in activities you once enjoyed, a significant change in appetite, such as eating much less or more than usual, and or weight loss or gain that is unrelated to dieting, sleeping too much or too little, decreased energy or increased tiredness or fatigue, increase and purposeless physical activity, such as the inability to sit still, pacing, hand wringing, or slowed movements or speech that are severe enough to be observable to others, feeling worthless or excessively guilty, difficulty thinking or concentrating, forgetfulness and difficulty making minor decisions, and thoughts of death, suicidal audiation or suicide attempts. Women are more likely than men, and younger adults are more likely than older adults to experience depression. While depression can occur at any time and at and at any age, on average, it can first appear during one's late teens to mid-20s. Symptoms of depression can vary from mild to severe and can appear differently in each person. According to a 2023 National Gallup Survey, three in 10 adults, or 29%, have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, the highest recorded by Gallup since 2015. My takeaway from this section is essentially that everyone's individual experience is very different and how they experience the world and the feelings they have. And all this to say is that this requires a lot of self-awareness to notice how you're feeling and your behaviors. And based on Dr. Duckworth's comments, it is all very subjective. And so I feel it's got to be helpful to have someone else, a close friend or loved one, a family member, or a therapist to navigate this if you're struggling. How is depression typically treated? The standard of care of treating depression includes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. While medication is important and it's life-saving for some with depression, the NIH reports that only 50% of people who take an antidepressant notice an improvement in their symptoms. The other treatment is psychotherapy. However, therapy can be cost prohibitive and challenging to schedule and requires finding a therapist that is a good fit, which is highlighted by this quote from Amy stating, My first psychiatrist said, You're one of those people who will always have empty pockets. That was a blanket statement that made me feel like I'd always be on medication. I'd always have some kind of yearning that was never fulfilled. Hearing this encouraged Weintrubb, though, to explore other options, thankfully, for managing her depression. This was a very fascinating and eye-opening uh quote from Amy, and the numbers around the efficacy on the treatment of depression was also surprising. It just really highlighted to me the importance of advocating for yourself. And as much as it is a leap for, especially guys, to go see a therapist, I feel like you gotta be willing to realize when you need to make a switch. I think a lot of guys like point A from point B, real tangible goals and progress. And I think that might actually be an important way to look at this, to notice when you're not seeing real progress and when you might need to make a switch of therapists. And also try some different lifestyle choices to help bolster your mental health. An empowering, personalized approach to yoga for depression. When Weintraub first tried meditation to help with her depression, she was asked to sit still with her eyes closed, which actually made her symptoms worse. Here's a quote from Amy I really needed more movement because I had an anxiety-based depression. Sitting can create a downward spiral. And that was happening to me. She sought out other yoga classes and found that a yoga practice that incorporated poses along with breath work, sound, and meditation that targeted her specific depression symptoms to be a breakthrough in her mental health. Under the close supervision of a new therapist, she was able to slowly come off of medication. Here's another quote from Amy. When I started a daily practice, I immediately thought of the image of empty pockets and felt abundance. That's what sent me on a whole new trajectory of getting off medication. It was not hard. Life got easier. I love this sentiment from Amy, and I completely agree. Everyone's mental health experience is unique and different. Even one mental health struggle could be different from the next. Noticing what symptoms you're having, and then finding the right yoga class and teacher for those symptoms and what you're experiencing is really critical. The best types of yoga for depression, different approaches to yoga can be helpful for different types of depression, explains Dr. Patricia Kinzer, the Dean of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Nursing, and Judith B. Collins and Joseph M. Tfee's distinguished professor. Dr. Kinzer researches yoga and mindfulness-based interventions for mental health. Kinzer suggests every individual should find the practice that best meets your needs, and yoga can be adjusted to fit your specific mental health needs. For example, power yoga might help some, whereas Hatha yoga, which includes slower movements and deep relaxation, might be helpful for others. Someone with lots of anxiety might wish to start with a more physical practice and then slowly bring themselves to a calmer place. Whereas someone who is feeling sluggish might need to start with a gentler practice and then slowly build up their energy and movements. Here's a quote from Dr. Kinzer. I see yoga and other mindfulness-based interventions as a way to get over the hump. For example, if they are using medication, but they know it's not going to work for a while, they can go ahead and start helping themselves earlier. And it can be an important complement to psychotherapy. It's another tool in their toolbox. There's a great quote from BKS Iengar, one of the founding fathers of yoga, of modern day yoga, that says the goal is to penetrate the mind, but in the beginning, there's no substitute for sweat. And for me, this has always been the case, whether it's dealing with my mental health or just my my monkey mind. I need movement to decompress, to be open to quieting the mind and sitting still. And I think this is the case for most folks and most guys. I do know, however, there's plenty of mental health uh concerns where people have extremely low energy and it's so uh serious that you can't get out of bed. And for those folks, yes, a more gentle practice is for sure a nice way to start and then build up to a more energetic movement-based practice. But if you're struggling with some ups and downs and minor depression, it's been my experience that the majority of students, and myself included, find great benefit in some movement practice, some movement-based yoga style. For me, it's it's hot yoga, whether it's vinyasa. Lately, it's been been more of a bikram type of practice where you hold the poses in the heat. Uh, it really helps me get out of my body and into my mind after I've done some movement. And that's been my experience as a longtime teacher and student of yoga. Why yoga is a powerful complement to depression treatment. One, the mind-body connection, the combination of mental and physical components, along with individual adaptability, likely makes yoga beneficial for depression, Kinzer says. Here's a quote from Dr. Kinzer. The benefit of yoga is that it is both the top-down and bottom-up mechanism. Top-down meaning the psychological, in the case of yoga, the psychological resilience has input on the rest of the body. And vice versa, the physical movement has that bottom-up benefit on the brain, and that becomes a positive loop. Two, deep relaxation and mindfulness built into nearly every yoga class is a pause at the beginning of class to ground yourself and bring attention to your breath, and at the end in order to decompress. This is a characteristic that is unique to yoga and often overlooked in typical workouts. Another key component to a yoga class is to attune to your breath, learn to move slowly, and pause before you move forward with a movement or decision. Staying present helps you recognize negative thoughts, which builds resilience and emotional clarity. Three, community and social support. Amy Weintraub found a supportive community with yoga, which in itself helped her with her depression. Dr. Duckworth says, quote, you can be part of a community. You don't have to be alone. Depression is isolating. You begin to think, I'm the only person living with this. Why is the world picking on me in this way? When in fact, depression is ordinary, it's common, anxiety is common, is just a part of the human condition. Four, biological changes, DNA methylation. Dr. Kinzer explains that yoga may help with depression and anxiety by actually changing our biology. She studies whether a yoga practice and social support could impact DNA methylation in our bodies. Think of DNA methylation as a dimmer switch for your genes. It controls how your body reacts to physical or psychological stress by turning certain genes up or down. Her research explores whether changing our psychological environment through things like yoga and social support can adjust that dimmer switch in a healthy way. Additionally, she says she's excited to explore how these benefits may extend beyond an individual. When you improve your mental health through yoga, medication, or therapy, it may create a positive ripple effect that can benefit your family, children, and even future generations. I wanted to expand on this. A lot of this was not entered into the article. It is a very in-depth and complicated topic, DNA methylation. And I could understand why they wanted to distill this information so that folks could understand it. However, the link between the science and of making it accessible, sometimes we miss certain components of it. But I just want to make sure in this podcast, I gave you a little bit more on this. So, according to Dr. Kinzer, one mechanism in which yoga may have an effect on depression is through its impact on DNA methylation, which is a moderator of gene expression. It regulates how your body responds to any physical or psychological stressor, and it turns on or off gene expression depending on what's going on. Gene expression is how we make proteins that are involved in psychological processes and therefore influence how we function. DNA methylation acts as a dimmer switch. You can turn it up and turn it down to respond to your environment. It also changes based on your psychological environment. For people with chronic depression and anxiety, if you change the psychological environment, you change the DNA methylation profile. Quote, we're studying whether yoga practice and social support can change DNA methylation. We're learning that our psychological environment gets under our skin just as much as our physical environment. End quote. Furthermore, someone who improves their mental health can move the needle in a positive direction and have a ripple effect on future generations. Quote. Mindful artistic expression and beyond is the long-term and familial impact. When we do these healthy interventions for ourselves, Kinzer says, whether it's getting the medications andor psychotherapy we need or practicing yoga, we are seeing that there are positive downstream effects in subsequent generations. That is really exciting to me. Unquote. This is really fascinating to me, especially as a yoga teacher, when I think about how we could get more skillful around planning to teach a class, making sure we hit these components, the mind-body connection, making sure there's uh attunement to the breath where folks could learn to deepen their breath, pause and make decisions for themselves. There's this mental aspect where you're pausing before and then a slight meditation, and then there's the shavasana at the end, making sure you at least include those aspects of a yoga class to get the deep relaxation components. And also, I've learned over the years that this community and social support is absolutely crucial for mental health. And even, well, especially with the guys, us guys don't tend to, you know, plan to meet up and socialize with one another, uh, unfortunately, maybe. But yoga is a really great healthy way for guys to get together and it not be awkward, but to work on your health together alongside shoulder to shoulder with your buddy. I've noticed guys start to over time build a like, no trust factor with both me, the teacher, and their fellow student. They end up talking to one another and opening up and supporting each other, which is really sweet. So that social community component, I think, is very important. And then this DNA methylation aspect that I have never heard of, but it's really, really interesting to me that potentially the vibe of the class could really have a great profound effect on your mental health and subsequently the the other other folks that you come in contact with, your family and therefore the world. And so there's something sweet, sounds a little uh hippy-dippy, but I think it's really interesting that how you show up, the psychological environment that you provide as a teacher can govern their mental health experience, the student's mental health experience. And so how you feel in a class with the teacher and those around you, if you feel supported, if they're positive, you know, this could have a real huge effect on your mental health and a downstream effect on the mental health of those that you come in contact with. And I I really love this. I had never heard of this. And I think this is one aspect of the article that that I was very excited to include because it's new and interesting. And uh, you know, it it seems like common sense, like how you feel and the environment you enter will affect your mood, right? And but to also think that it it genuinely does, and there's folks studying this, and it's part of our biology, and also that it could have this uh ripple effect throughout your your world is really, really sweet. So I was really happy to include that. Yoga is the ideal low energy alternative to aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is known to reduce depressive symptoms, but if you are struggling with depression, low energy levels can make it challenging to find the motivation to work out vigorously. Here's a quote from Dr. Duckworth. It's pretty well established that aerobic exercise is good for people who have mild anxiety, maybe moderate anxiety, mild depression, or moderate depression. But of course, one of the core features of depression is people don't have the energy to do things. So you don't tell your patient to go for a five-mile run. You look at your patient and figure out what they can do. Unquote. So, similar to exercise, yoga produces endorphins and elevate levels of GABA, your brain's natural mood-boosting chemicals. Most yoga routines offer a way to ease into movement and receive the same benefits as exercise, just more gradually. Over time, yoga helps you develop awareness and the ability to self-regulate your effort skillfully. This has definitely been my personal experience after a long wrestling career. Uh, I paid the price for wrestling division one in college, which meant four knee surgeries, chronic low back pain. Uh, I've almost bit off my tongue twice, stitches in my tongue. So went through a whole lot of pain. My body was struggling after uh a strenuous wrestling career. I think it was worth it looking back at it, but only now because I found yoga. Because after after wrestling, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't exercise in all the old ways that I was used to, lifting weights, running, and exercising vigorously because everything hurt. And thank goodness someone brought me to my first yoga class because I was there was this ripple-down effect, trickle-down effect from not exercising. Uh, there was weight gain, and my mental health really started to slide uh shortly after quitting wrestling in college there. And so yoga is a was a great way to slowly get those same benefits of aerobic exercise and slowly enter back into movement without tweaking anything, without anything hurting. Um, so if you handle your yoga intelligently, it'll ease you into uh exercise and you will avoid the pain and injuries that often could come along with an aerobic exercise routine. I also included the seven best yoga positions for depression, which I was really thrilled to do because I think it's nice to have something for people to do straight away and at home. So there are many ways to practice yoga for depression. And what matters most is that you do not rush, you notice how you feel and personalize your practice so that it works for you. So the most important part of any yoga practice is efficacy. It's gotta work. And here are the seven best yoga poses for depression. These are based on Amy Weintraub's collaboration with researchers on yoga for depression. The best yoga poses for depression include warrior two. So, why is it beneficial for depression? For someone who is battling depression, warrior two is a great pose to feel empowered and know that your practice is something within your control. It also helps you feel grounded and build strength both mentally and physically. Bridge pose. Amy Weintraub says that those who are facing depression, they often slouch or feel closed off. Backbends, such as bridge pose, build confidence and help you energize when you feel low. And I love this about our yoga practice and especially back bends. And when you want to shut off or close down or shut down, you practice willfully opening up with these backbends. It's you really feel it. Tree pose. For anxiety-based depression, balancing poses like tree are grounding. You have to be focused and present while you balance and not obsessed over negative thoughts. Legs up the wall. Inversions are particularly good to empower students. Legs up the wall is an accessible inversion that allows you to get the benefits of an inversion in a restorative position with stability. Wide-legged seated forward folds. Seated forward folds afford you a lot of physical stability, which can also translate to feeling mentally stable. Amy Weintraub cautions not to sit still for long stretches of time because it can bring up your negative thoughts. Shivasana is a real fan favorite. Just to get your deep relaxation. Okay, just to deliberately disengage. Breath work. Breath of joy. So how you do this one is you stand comfortably with your feet beneath your knees and your knees slightly bent. You inhale through your nose as you raise your arms in front of your body to chest level, taking one-third of a full breath. Continue to inhale as you swing your arms out on both sides of your body, filling another third of your lungs. Inhale that final third as you raise your arms over your head. Exhale, bend your knees into chair pose as you swing your arms down and behind your body, making the sound lum. Repeat three or to ten times. This is based on Amy Weintraub's suggestion. She says that if you are feeling anxious to take slower inhales, and if you are feeling low energy, try speeding up your breath to become more energized. Why it works? Breath of joy is a great example of what Weintraub calls, quote, meeting the mood, unquote. You can regulate your mood differently based on you your needs in the moment. In some yoga traditions, sounds correlate with certain feelings. So there you have it. Give these poses a shot. They are all super accessible. And give yoga a shot if you're feeling like you're in a dark place or just struggling or going through a season of life that is more difficult for your mental health. It's definitely worth it. Um, if you'd like specific yoga uh positions, videos sent to you, I have plenty. Please reach out to me directly. I have full yoga classes that are very accessible. Happy to send those along if you're you're looking to start. Uh, let me know what you think of this episode. This is my first go at it, and I'm very curious how it's received. Love you all for being here and listening to me chat this whole time. Um, thanks for tuning in. Uh, you can find me on all social media platforms, especially Instagram at yoga with Jake and on my website, yogawithjake.com. And please leave the podcast a review. You could write one on Apple Podcasts, and I will leave a link to this article in the show notes. Please go check it out. There is also an audio variation for those who who like to listen instead. Until next time, take care of that.