Regular yoga practice "lowers blood pressure"

Agencies - Abu Dhabi

A study review found that blood pressure in adults who practice "yoga" with breathing and relaxation exercises at least three times a week may be lower.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 49 trials involving 3,517 people, mostly men and women in middle age and obese, who already had or were close to high blood pressure.

Smaller trials evaluated blood pressure before and after randomly assigning participants either yoga practice or abstaining.

In general, systolic blood pressure in participants who practiced yoga was less than five milligrams of mercury on average compared to groups who abstained from exercise and their diastolic blood pressure was 3.9 millimeters of mercury by yoga.

Systolic blood pressure was also found in stress patients who exercised three times a week in sessions that also included breathing and relaxation exercises that decreased 11 millimeters of mercury and decreased diastolic blood pressure by six millimeters of mercury.
"Our results not only show that yoga may be in the effectiveness of physical exercise in lowering blood pressure, but also indicates the importance of yoga exercises for breathing, mental relaxation and meditation along with movements," said Yin Wu, a researcher in physical anatomy at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, .

However, the researchers wrote in the Mayo Clinic Prosids that they did not get data on how yoga was practiced, including how long participants kept each position and how quickly they moved from one position to another.
"Yoga improves balance, strength and flexibility in general, but problems can occur if one seeks maximum flexibility and suffers from joint fragility," said Mehrshid Senaki, a rehabilitation specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.