Can yoga replace medication in helping kids with ADD and ADHD focus?

I read an interesting blog post about how yoga can work as well as medication to treat ADD and ADHD, but instead of working as a quick fix, it teaches kids lifelong skills to help them concentrate.  This is my response to Yoga for ADD/ADHD:

Isn't it fascinating how much meditation impacts how your brain functions? I thought the paragraph about proprioception was really interesting. I didn’t realize we even had a mechanism for knowing where we are in space, although I suppose it would be really important. I’d like to find out how this mechanism works physiologically, and how yoga enhances this process. Is the effect of yoga on this part of the brain related to its effect on awareness and balance in general?  

 I am really into finding alternatives to drugs for psychological disorders. I used to strongly oppose Ritalin and other ADD/ADHD medications because the idea of putting kids on drugs seems so wrong. It's a quick fix, and they learn that it is OK to depend on drugs to function. I understand that ADD has neurological causes, so mere discipline is not going to help them focus. So what other option is there? I have been looking up ways that meditation has been used to treat mental disorders and bring about psychological health, but I hadn't considered using meditation in place of ADD meds. I would be interested to know how effective it is though. I can't imagine being able to persuade children to go through a session of yoga, which requires so much self control and concentration. It's hard enough to get an energetic kid (without ADD) to sit still for 10 minutes. How challenging would it be for a medically-diagnosed hyperactive child to sit still and follow directions for a 20 minute sesh!

Blogger's Voice: Quint(ess)en(ce)

The writer of Quint(ess)en(ce) uses the same voice throughout his blog. The posts are straightforward, informal, and easy to follow. He draws the reader into each post with an interesting quote in italics or a definition of a word that will later be discussed. Then, he usually tells a personal story that relates to the subject. His posts are about meditation, yoga, and hypnosis. He makes himself very present in the writing by sharing personal anecdotes, experiences, and reflections. This way, the reader gets a sense about the person who is writing, and the personal touch makes the blog something more than just a description of the topic or a list of facts, which would feel too academic and be less interesting to read. Many of the blog post titles simply state the subject of the blog, such as “kinesiology tutorials,” “Learn to solve your sleeping problems and more,” and “Physiology of Meditation: Sensitization of the nervous system,” but some of them describe the subject in a more interesting way, like “Niche marketing on crack” and “Otherness: The experience of vastness of Being.”
The post The experience of Vastness of Being opens with: 

When I was around this age of seventeen I was interested in Psychology, Yoga, Otherness. In short I was interested in the Power of the Mind [or lack of it] with the goal to experience those insights people have that is beyond the world of the Physical.

He does not try to write grammatically or formally. By listing the words Psychology, Yoga, and Otherness, he gives the impression that the list doesn’t necessarily stop at Otherness. There is no definitive and between Yoga and Otherness. He also capitalizes each of these words, as well as Power, Mind, and Physical, which connotes significance. He uses capitalization to emphasize these words and convey a sense of greatness. They extend beyond the physical world and are much greater than us. Yet, when speaking about these things, he doesn’t attempt to make himself out to be an expert. He remains very informal, using brackets and speaking as he would in conversation. 
The blogger then goes on to say that he has become a dreamer and that he creates idealistic expectations about his life. After listing some books (and links) that contributed to his idealism, he says:

The latter was the icing of the cake, so to speak. Because soon after that I left this path of thinking. Satified. Or not?! At least until today. Today I have the urge to write about my Vision of Otherness based on those people who have sculped me.

His sentences are mostly short. He puts a period between speak and Because to create a pause. He uses lots of periods (and other punctuation) to separate his thoughts. He gives satisfied its own sentence to create a sense of uncertainty about whether he really is satisfied. He questions it (very dramatically- he apparently really wanted to emphasize this doubt). And the next sentence is kind of a hook, drawing his audience to continue reading in order to find out what he means by questioning his satisfaction and what happened today to affect it. He uses the same technique in his post Physiology of Meditation: Sensitization of the nervous system:

It is stated that Atman is the Soul (animation). Because … where there is no Soul there is no Atman. You get it: no breath, no life. It is that simple.

In this case, he uses it to state a seemingly complicated topic in a very simple way. The pauses give the reader a chance to understand what they just read. It also emphasizes how simple the concept actually is so that the reader doesn’t over-think it. This particular blog contains many words that are unfamiliar to most people who do not have a background in science or yoga. The main words are defined in the post in block format, while the other words include links to their Wikipedia definitions.
After defining sensitization and providing a short personal story about public speaking, the post says:

Because this is the link where I want to prove to you that Meditation, Relaxation, Centering your mind are all techniques to train your nervous system to become sensitive. Even running can do bring you in a Alpha state because of the rythm of your running and the physiological changes that take place.

Why running you might ask? Well, everybody knows about the releasing of those endorphins while running.

This is followed by a definition of the word endorphin. Again, he begins a sentence with because and capitalizes significant aspects of yoga. He uses bolding to emphasize a very important point. The entire post is about sensitization and its importance to health, and this one sentence links sensitization to yoga. He then uses running as a metaphor to explain how these techniques make you more sensitive and thus healthier.
This blog is very informative. The blogger does not convey a lot of emotion, but he is certainly talking about something that he is enthusiastic about. He speaks casually and relates his posts to personal experiences.

Just a few reasons why meditating is so good.

Slava Dodonu meditates daily because he enjoys it. Like most people who meditate, he does not realize the countless physical and psychological benefits, and if he does, it is probably not his primary reason to meditate. Meditation gives him a sense of purpose and control:

Before it used to be sleeping and doing daily duties. Now there is more. There is a time in the morning when I am with myself, consciously with myself. It’s neither sleeping nor working. It’s just being with myself. In the evening, the experiences collected during the day are put to rest. All extraneous mental and emotional weight is acknowledged and let go of. I am with myself again.

There seems to be countless other benefits for meditating as well, and the web is full of examples and proof. Efficiency of Meditation to Reduce Blood Pressure talks about Transcendental Meditation, which has been experimentally shown to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressures significantly. Dr. James W. Anderson, the lead author of the study, believes that

blood pressure reductions of this magnitude would be expected to be accompanied by significant reductions in risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease—without drug side effects.

Meditation and Physiology mentions a study that found monks to have higher electroencephalographic (EEG) activity than healthy subjects who did not meditate. This means that people who meditate are more alert, attentive, and have better functioning cognitive abilities such as memory and intelligence. They also have greater brain mass, according to a study quoted in the blog post Meditation increases grey matter in right hemisphere of the brain. Apparently, meditation slows down deterioration of the prefrontal cortex and, consequently, slows down age-related memory loss.
Let’s return to Slava. Meditation has helped him deal calmly with stressful situations and achieve personal growth. He doesn’t mention neurological or bodily reasons for meditating, probably because he is not aware of the benefits that I have mentioned. By doing something that makes him feel good, he is inadvertently making himself a healthier individual, psychologically and physically.

This post is a profile on the blog Yogic Trance
(http://www.yogictrance.com/), whose author goes by admin. The
subject of the blog is the advantages of practicing yoga and
meditation. The writer posts on this blog frequently, some days have
multiple posts. The blog seems pretty popular, with each post
receiving seven to 14 views. One post that I found interesting is
"Meditation and Yoga for Depression and Bipolar"
(http://www.yogictrance.com/2008/05/22/meditation-and-yoga-for-depression-and-bipolar/). The author describes his own experience with depression and how
meditation helped him sort out his life. He also summarizes the main
points in a book by Amy Weintraub, a yoga instructor who has
researched depression, on the expected and unexpected rewards of
meditation. Another interesting post, "Yoga cure for Smoking"
(http://www.yogictrance.com/2009/01/07/yoga-cure-for-smoking/),
explains how overcoming psychological and emotional problems through
yoga helps people to achieve the strength to quit smoking. It gives
an example of a breathing technique to use when you have a craving.

Yoga is a discipline that involves meditation, breathing techniques
and a series of postures to achieve tranquility and control over one's
thoughts. This blog discusses the benefits of yoga beyond these
effects. The writer discusses how meditation has helped him in the
post "Meditation and Yoga for Depression and Bipolar":

My mind, for one, is like a Circuit City showroom, with TVs and VCRs
and home sound systems blaring all at once from all sides.

He used meditation and yoga to assert control over his brain and
manage his depression, enabling him to function normally. He also
discusses ways in which yoga has helped other people deal with
depression and other mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder,
obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
and addictions.

This is relevant to my blog, which discusses the relationship between
meditation and physiology. My blog will look at yoga and other
techniques that involve meditation to assess the physical and
psychological gains that come from meditating and the underlying
physical processes. I recognize, however, that yoga involves
techniques other than just meditating that contribute to producing the
health benefits discussed in this blog.

This blog is highly scholarly. The writer mentions many different
maladies that yoga treats and other benefits of yoga, describes the
specific meditation for each treatment, and how it works to produce
the specific outcomes. He also includes various accounts in which
meditation has helped someone overcome a physical or psychological
ailment and cites professional research. For example, "Real life
story of how Kundalini Yoga helped OCD" describes a female patient's
struggle with OCD and BDD and the Kundalini Yoga therapy that she
underwent. She says,

Yoga put me in a state of balance, and gave me peace of mind
immediately. I was able to quit cigarettes. I also started to have a
normal appetite again…The most beneficial aspect of the experience,
however, was the immediate release from anxiety, depression, and OCD…
The continuation of the practice led to a greater state of peace and
general strength that has continued up to this day.

"Meditation and Yoga for Depression and Bipolar" cites Amy Weintraub
and backs up her argument with a study in UCLA in which

28 mildly-depressed young adults attended two one-hour yoga classes
twice a week for five weeks. Midway into the course, subjects
"demonstrated significant decreases in self-reported symptoms of
depression and trait anxiety," which they maintained to the end.
Subjects also reported decreased negative mood and fatigue following
class.

The posts are very rich and detailed, providing various examples,
personal reflections, and research.

The blog is aimed toward anyone interested in doing yoga. I think it
would also be relevant to anyone in the field of psychology,
especially therapists who may wish to use yoga as part of a treatment
plan for people suffering from mental health disorders or trying to
overcome addiction. Physicians may also be interested in this blog
since it discusses physical benefits of yoga such as reducing blood
pressure.

This blog will feed my work by contributing insight into a specific
meditation technique and how it improves health. I can compare the
benefits of yoga with that of other techniques to see which overlap
and therefore determine which are attributable to meditation alone.
My site will differ because it will consider various practices
involving meditation, as well as the act of meditation itself, and
compare and contrast methods and effectiveness. I will also explore
spiritual as well as biological aspects.

Hello!

Hello! This blog is an introduction of my topic of discussion for the semester. I will seek to find a connection between meditation and physiology and explore the health benefits of meditating. I have heard of people using meditation to lower their blood pressure, reduce anxiety, and overcome phobias. These effects of meditation are logical because they result from relaxation. But my interest in this topic arose when I learned that meditation can be equally effective as cognitive behavioral therapy in treating depression and other psychopathologies. As a psychology major, I am curious about the powerful effects of thinking on emotions, behavior, and personal health.

Over the course of the semester, I will identify the positive effects of meditation related to metabolism, the autonomic and central nervous systems, and the endocrine system. I will research and discuss the biological processes that underlie these effects. My primary focus, however, will be on meditation and psychology. I would like to find out if meditation produces health benefits directly, or if it does so indirectly via increased psychological functioning. I will discuss the effectiveness of meditation as treatment for specific psychopathologies and compare it to conventional therapeutic approaches and pharmacotherapy. Could meditation be a substitute for expensive therapies and medications in treating disorders such as depression and anxiety? Or is it most effective when used as a component of therapy? Also, is there enough empirical support for the effectiveness of meditation to make it part of conventional medicine, or should it be classified as an alternative health practice?

I am writing to an audience who is seeking non-chemical interventions to health problems, specifically mental health disorders. I am also writing to those in the scientific community who have studied the effects of meditation and those who are interested in incorporating it into treatment.

I hope that this introduction has aroused an interest in the topic and that I have raised intriguing questions that will draw people back to this blog.