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I recently read an article in the Los Angeles Times about the potential for a “yoga pill” to treat anxiety. It was an interesting story about how neuroscientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies recently discovered the neural pathway in our brains that helps us soothe and calm ourselves. The study itself was published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.
The gist was that these scientists had been able to identify the brain circuit engaged when we practice controlled breathing – like with yoga, mediation, and breathwork. This neural mechanism just so happens to be the one that helps us control negative emotions like fear, stress, and anxiety. In other words, science can now officially explain what our bodies already knew.
What I found strange was the takeaway. The scientists optimistically suggested that this discovery could lead to “a whole new class of drugs” over the course of the next ten years or so. Maybe that’s a good thing… but I had a lot of questions.
If we know we can tap into this natural process through behavioral practices like breathwork, why do we need drugs? If meditation and yoga are available to us now, why should we wait ten years for a prescription? Why are widely accessible traditional medicines and treatment practices dismissed by science and then, when validated, turned into a pharmaceutical profit opportunity?
Ultimately, everybody should make their own choices about what’s best for their situation. But while we wait for the drug companies to catch up, I think we should continue to take advantage of the positive practices we already have available, like breathwork, meditation, yoga, qigong, etc.
I don’t know about you, but all things being equal, I’d rather take a breath than a pill.
