Add Yoga for Heart Health

By Editorial Staff

With millions of global participants, yoga is a popular spiritual practice. But yoga has physical benefits as well, including heart health, a point underscored by new research that compared yoga and regular exercise vs. stretching for patients diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure).

Researchers divided hypertensive patients into two groups for comparison. One group performed 15 minutes of yoga, along with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, five times a week for three months. The other group performed 15 minutes of stretching, along with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, with the same frequency and over the same three-month time period.

Both groups experienced reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, arterial blood pressure and heart rate. However, in the yoga group, systolic BP declined by 10 mmHg vs. only 4 mmHg in the stretching group; while also reducing resting heart rate and 10-year cardiovascular risk. Findings appear in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Have you tried yoga? If not, now's the time to see what it can do for you, whether you suffer from high blood pressure – or just want to make sure you never do. Your body and mind will thank you for it.