Here is an interesting article by Jan Kiecolt-Glasner of Ohio State University that informs us how yoga has been shown to reduce cytokine levels, which are known to promote inflammation. Yoga reduces cytokine levels known to promote inflammation Regularly practicing yoga exercises may lower a number of compounds in the blood and reduce the level of inflammation that normally rises because of both normal ageing and stress, a new study has shown. The study, done by Ohio State University researchers and just reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, showed that women who routinely practiced yoga had lower amounts of the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) in their blood. The women also showed smaller increases in IL-6 after stressful experiences than did women who were the same age and weight but who were not yoga practitioners. IL-6 is an important part of the body's inflammatory response and has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, arthritis and a host of ...