Yoga has been the subject of research in the past few decades for therapeutic purposes for modern epidemic diseases like mental stress, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Individual studies report beneficial effect of yoga in these conditions, indicating that it can be used as nonpharmaceutical measure or complement to drug therap...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the evidence for clinical applications of yoga among the pediatric population. METHODS We conducted an electronic literature search including CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO, and manual search of retrieved articles from inception of each database until December 2008. Randomized controll...

Objectives. To systematically review and meta-analyze the effectiveness of yoga for reducing blood pressure in adults with hypertension and to assess the modifying influences of type and length of yoga intervention and type of comparison group. Methods. Academic Search Premier, AltHealthWatch, BIOSIS/Biological Abstracts, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Natura...

Previous studies have indicated that Yoga exercise has a positive effect on reducing blood pressure and heart rate. However, no randomized controlled studies to date have investigated its effects on arterial compliance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an 8-month Yoga intervention on arterial compliance and muscle strength in normal premenopausal women 35-50 years of ...

What are the health benefits of yoga? Answer Dear Reader, The word yoga means "to bring together or merge" ? as in joining the mind and body into a single harmonious unit. The general purpose is to create physical and spiritual strength and awareness. However, more than one hundred different types, or schools, of yoga exist and each form provides its own unique cocktail of health benefits. Most...

Objectives: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a common problem in the elderly. Yoga exercise can be considered a non-pharmacological and complementary method for pain control. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of yoga on chronic musculoskeletal pain in elderly females referring to selected health centers in Rafsanjan, Iran. Methods: In this clinical trial, 60 females over...

BACKGROUND Aging and age-related health problems are major issues of concern for community health services. Yoga is an exercise with both physiological and psychological effects on aging. Although many studies have assessed the effectiveness of yoga in the elderly, little information is available in the literature to support empirical conclusions. PURPOSE This review synthesizes and character...

Yoga is being used by a growing number of youth and adults as a means of improving overall health and fitness. There is also a progressive trend toward use of yoga as a mind-body complementary and alternative medicine intervention to improve specific physical and mental health conditions. To provide clinicians with therapeutically useful information about yoga, the evidence evaluating yoga as a...

BACKGROUND Yoga and meditation have been shown to be effective in alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety in healthy volunteers and psychiatric populations. Recent work has also indicated that yoga can improve cognitive-behavioural performance and control. Although there have been no controlled studies of the effects of yoga in a prison population, we reasoned that yoga could have benefi...

Background It has been suggested that yoga may be effective in the management of mental health disorders including addictions. Objective To critically evaluate the evidence of effectiveness of yoga as a treatment for addictions. Methods Fourteen electronic databases were searched from inception to January 2013. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated any type of yoga against any type...