The Meaning of yoga 'recombination' - a discussion of immunological change in yogic practice

Yoga, which means 'recombination' in Sanskrit, has been recently confirmed to have various physiological effects. We examined changes of electroencephalographs (EEGs) and cellular immunity before, during, and after yoga exercises, in an endeavor to detect any correlation between them. During the pranayama period, we observed a positive correlation between the change in abundance of activated alpha waves and the ratio of changes in NK activity. Furthermore, a positive correlation was observed between the change in abundance of the activated alpha waves and the ratio of changes in the number of T lymphocytes. These findings suggest that yoga creates a stress-free and mentally concentrative state that activates the functions of NK cells and T lymphocytes within a short period of time. However a negative correlation was observed between the change in the abundance of the activated alpha waves and the ratio of changes in the number of B lymphocytes during the pranayama period. We conclude from these results that yogic practice may be able to help recover a person's mental and physical harmony in our stress-laiden modern society. The original meaning of yoga, 'recombination', is considered to express some 're-activation' of a latent ability of harmonization which humans naturally possess.