Yoga for menopause symptoms? Mental health condition? Pain condition?

by Bhima Yoga Admin

How much do we know about yoga?

Although much research has been done on the health effects of yoga, many of the studies have included only small numbers of people and have not been of high quality. Therefore, in most instances, we can only say that yoga has shown promise in helping to manage a particular health condition, not that it has been proven effective. Yoga is generally safe for healthy people when performed properly; individuals with health conditions should discuss their needs with their health care providers and the yoga instructor.

What do we know about the effectiveness of yoga?

National survey results from 2012 show that many people who practice yoga believe that it improves their general well-being, and there is beginning to be evidence that it actually may help with some aspects of wellness including stress management, balance, positive aspects of mental health, and promoting healthy eating and physical activity habits.
Yoga may help relieve low-back pain and neck pain.
There’s promising evidence that yoga may help people with some chronic diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
Yoga may help people with diabetes control their blood sugar.
Growing evidence indicates that yoga may help women manage both physical and psychological symptoms of menopause.
Yoga may be helpful for anxiety or depressive symptoms associated with difficult life situations, but it has not been shown to help in managing anxiety disorders, clinical depression, or posttraumatic stress disorder.
Yoga may help people manage sleep problems.
Yoga may be helpful for people who are trying to quit smoking.
Yoga-based interventions may help overweight/obese people lose weight.


What do we know about the safety of yoga?


Yoga is generally considered a safe form of physical activity for healthy people when performed properly, under the guidance of a qualified instructor. However, as with other types of physical activity, injuries can occur. The most common injuries are sprains and strains. Serious injuries are rare. 
People with health conditions, older adults, and pregnant women may need to avoid or modify some yoga poses and practices. These individuals should discuss their specific needs with their health care providers and their yoga instructors.

What the Science Says About the Effectiveness of Yoga?

Wellness
  • Of 17 studies (involving 1,070 total participants) of yoga for stress management included in a recent review, 12 showed improvements in physical or psychological measures related to stress. 
  • Of 15 studies (involving 688 total participants) looking at the effect of yoga on balance in healthy people included in another review, 11 showed improvements in at least one outcome related to balance. 
  • In a recent review of 14 studies (involving 1,084 total participants) that assessed the effects of yoga on positive aspects of mental health, 10 studies found evidence of benefits, such as improvements in resilience or general mental well-being. 

Asthma
  • A 2016 review of 15 studies of yoga for asthma (involving 1,048 total participants) concluded that yoga probably leads to small improvements in quality of life and symptoms in people with asthma. 
Cancer Symptom Management
  • In a 2018 evaluation of 138 studies on the use of yoga in patients with various types of cancer (involving 10,660 total participants), most of the studies found that yoga improved patients’ physical and psychological symptoms and quality of life. 
  • The amount of research on yoga for patients with each of the individual types of cancer is small, with one exception—breast cancer. A 2017 review of 24 studies in patients with breast cancer (involving 2,166 total participants) found moderate-quality evidence that yoga, when compared to no treatment, was helpful in improving health-related quality of life and reducing fatigue and sleep disturbances. Yoga was more helpful than educational interventions for reducing depression, anxiety, and fatigue in women with breast cancer, and it may have been as helpful as other forms of exercise for health-related quality of life and fatigue.  
Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
  • Stress and a sedentary lifestyle are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Because yoga involves exercise and may help reduce stress, it might help reduce risk. However, only small, short-term, low-quality studies have examined this topic. A 2014 review of 11 studies (involving 800 participants) provided some evidence that yoga may improve some risk factors, such as diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number in a blood pressure reading) and levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides; however, these results should not be considered conclusive.
  • In a 2015 review of 17 studies (involving 1,310 participants) of yoga for hypertension (high blood pressure), a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, yoga reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) in 11 studies and diastolic blood pressure or nighttime blood pressure in 8. 
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
  • A 2018 analysis of 10 studies (involving 502 total participants) found evidence that yoga can improve physical ability (such as the capacity to walk a defined distance in a defined time), lung function, and quality of life in people with COPD. Therefore, yoga could be a helpful addition to rehabilitation programs for people with this condition
.
Diabetes
  • A 2017 evaluation of 23 studies with 2,473 participants showed that participating in yoga programs was associated with better blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes, at least on a short-term basis. 
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
  • A 2016 review of 6 studies (involving 273 total participants) of yoga in people with IBS found some evidence that yoga could decrease IBS symptoms and severity, as well as anxiety. However, because the studies used different methods that couldn’t be compared easily and because of the risk that the findings might be biased, no definite conclusions about the effects of yoga could be reached.  
Menopause Symptoms
  • A 2018 evaluation of 13 studies (involving 1,306 total participants) of yoga for menopause symptoms found that yoga reduced physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, and psychological symptoms, in comparison with no treatment. Six years earlier, a similar evaluation of the evidence found benefits only for psychological symptoms, but newer research indicates that yoga is helpful for physical symptoms as well. Yoga seems to be at least as effective as other types of exercise in relieving menopause symptoms. 
Mental Health Conditions
  • In a recent review of 23 studies (involving 1,272 participants) in people with depressive symptoms (although not necessarily diagnosed with depression), yoga was helpful in reducing symptoms in 14 of the studies.
Pain Conditions 
  • A 2018 report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality evaluated 8 trials of yoga for low-back pain (involving 1,466 total participants) and found that yoga improved pain and function both in the short term (1 to 6 months) and intermediate term (6 to 12 months). The effects of yoga were similar to those of exercise. Yoga is among the options that the American College of Physicians recommended for initial nondrug therapy for chronic low-back pain in a 2017 clinical practice guideline. 
Sleep Problems
Of 10 studies of yoga for sleep disturbances associated with cancer treatment, 7 showed significant improvements in various aspects of sleep, according to a 2018 review
Smoking Cessation
  • A 2014 report evaluated 10 studies (484 participants) in which yoga-based interventions were tested as an aid to smoking cessation. In most of the studies, yoga reduced cravings and the number of cigarettes smoked.
Weight Control
  • In 2013, NCCIH-supported researchers examined 17 yoga-based interventions for weight control to try to identify factors associated with the greatest success. They found that factors associated with greater effectiveness included longer and more frequent yoga sessions, a longer duration of the overall program, a yoga-based dietary component, a residential component (such as a full weekend to start the program), inclusion of a larger number of elements of yoga, and home practice.
Source

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