Yoga, Deep Breathing Used to Address Soldiers’ Post-Traumatic Stress

By Meg Jones, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Travis Leanna, 26, of Madison, who served in the Marines in Iraq and is a UW-Madison electrical engineering student, meditates daily and has trained to be an instructor of the power breathing techniques. ©Namita Azad

Rich Low dreamed of Iraq long after he returned home from the war.

The memories haunted him when he was awake, too. About six months after his deployment, he was driving at night when a sudden burst of lightning snapped him back to Baghdad and the bomb that exploded near him during a thunderstorm.

Low’s pulse raced as adrenaline surged through his body even though he was driving on a road far from any war zone.

He didn’t know post-traumatic stress was affecting him. Not until he took part in a University of Wisconsin-Madison study that taught Iraq and Afghanistan veterans yoga, meditation and breathing techniques to cope with PTSD.

This week, another group of veterans is at UW’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds learning meditation, deep breathing and Sudarshan Kriya Yoga techniques. Before the 10 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans started the weeklong course this week, they underwent MRIs, which will be followed by another brain scan after the class is done.

The aim is to see if meditation, yoga and deep breathing can help veterans with PTSD. . . . Read the full article in the Journal Sentinel here!