Asthma And Yoga - Can Yoga Reduce Your Symptoms?

Yoga, a practice of mind/body unity, is built on the idea that easing the mind and reducing stress can improve your health. Though we do not understand the exact mechanisms behind the mind/body connection, yoga has proven beneficial for many asthmatics. Yoga works by combining breath control with meditative and therapeutic physical postures. Of all the complementary therapies, yoga is my personal favorite.

 

Multiple studies have established that yoga can reduce asthma symptoms, decrease medication use, improve exercise tolerance, and increase peak flow. One randomized, controlled study compared fifty-three asthmatics who performed an hour of yoga daily to a control group. The authors found that there was "a significantly greater improvement in the group who practiced yoga—in the weekly number of attacks of asthma, scores for drug treatment, and peak flow rate." Specifically, in the yoga group, the mean peak flow before yoga was 290.1 L/min compared to 362.8 L/min after yoga, a statistically significant difference.

 

One study of forty-two moderate to severe asthmatics concluded that yoga therapy resulted in a significant increase in lung function and exercise tolerance, with fewer symptoms and reduced drug use. In another trial, which examined Sahaja yoga in moderate to severe asthmatics using inhaled steroids, methacholine sensitivity declined and participants reported improved mood after four months of weekly yoga. The authors concluded that yoga had a beneficial effect on both objective and subjective measures of asthma. Not surprisingly, these benefits disappeared after discontinuing yoga.