Your weekly yoga practice could be doing more than settling your nerves or keeping you flexible – it could be helping improve your asthma symptoms too.

Recent research looked at the effects of Hatha yoga on asthma symptoms. Participants reported that they had been able to reduce medication, according to Amy Bidwell, senior author of the study. The findings were presented at this year’s American College of Sports Medicine’s annual meeting.

Dr Jonathan Field, director of the allergy and asthma clinic at New York University School of Medicine said this is not a surprise. Other studies have looked at the effects of yoga on asthma, but have not used the standardized scale that this new research has.

Unlike previous studies that were more short term, this study looked at a regular regimen of yoga such as a person might reasonably do in real life. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: one did yoga three times a week for 2.5 hours for a ten week period; the other participants were in a non-yoga control group for the same 10 week period.

Yoga, unlike other forms of exercise, helps the participants to work on deep and controlled breathing.

All study participants were tested for heart rate variability, oxygen consumption and ventilation while performing two standard tasks. The yoga group saw their scores improve an average of almost 43 per cent over the course of the study.

Bidwell, who is also a yoga instructor, said that there isn’t any danger to doing yoga unless the individual has a major orthopedic problem.

Dr Field couldn’t agree more on the benefits of yoga. He said, “It’s been recognized that deep breathing in athletes – swimmers or runners – actually improves asthma.” So, if asthma patients are looking for a non-drug strategy that could help them control symptoms, this could be the one.

Source: Forbes.com