PRACTICING YOGA BENEFITS YOUR HEART

PRACTICING YOGA BENEFITS YOUR HEART

Adding to the list of the many benefits of yoga, a large review of 37 studies with 2,768 subjects, shows that yoga also benefits your heart.  Regular yoga practice may reduce heart disease risks as effectively as brisk walking or biking.  Researchers from Harvard University in Boston Massachusetts and Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, conducted the review.

Review results showed that those who practiced yoga were able to impact each of the primary heart disease risk factors—lower blood pressure, reduced BMI, lower LDL cholesterol and higher HDL cholesterol levels.  The only risk factor that was unaffected by yoga practice was blood sugar levels.  Yoga also provided significant benefits for those who practiced it together with medication treatment for a specific condition, such as high blood pressure.

We don’t know yet how many minutes you need to practice, or how days per week to enjoy these benefits, but in the meantime, it’s worth practicing when you can.  “Although evidence of yoga’s beneficial effect in cardiovascular health is growing, a physiological explanation for this effect remains unclear.  Also unclear are the dose-response relationship and the relative costs and benefits of yoga when compared to exercise or medication.  However, these results indicate that yoga is potentially very useful and…worth pursuing as a risk improvement practice.” said senior study author, Myriam Hunink, PhD, from Erasmus University Medical Center in a European Society of Cardiology news release.

The study is available in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2014).

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Shirley Archer

 

Shirley Archer is a mindful health educator, award-winning trainer and best-selling author who helps busy women who want to look and feel younger, healthier, happier—naturally. Through blogs, articles, books and podcasts, she’s here to eliminate overwhelm and inspire women to bring more peace into their lives, so they can meet all their responsibilities and still make self-care a priority.

After working as a high-powered attorney in both New York City and Washington D.C., a bout with chronic fatigue syndrome inspired Shirley to dedicated herself to wellness and sharing better health with those around her. Since leaving Wall St., Shirley has authored 12 books on fitness and wellness, and has achieved certification in mindful modalities including yoga, Pilates and meditation. In addition to being an award-winning personal trainer, she is also a certified Spinning instructor and group fitness instructor.

When she’s not blissed out in zen, you can find Shirley hiking with her beloved German Shepherd, Cheyenne either in the Swiss Alps or in sunny California, speaking at fitness conferences worldwide, and being featured in various high-profile media including USA Today, Washington Post, Fitness, Shape and cnn.com. For Shirley’s latest musings on mindfulness, visit her site at www.shirleyarcher.com

http://www.shirleyarcher.com
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