Yoga May Improve Quality of Life for Asthma Patients

A new study suggests that practicing yoga may improve quality of life for women with asthma.

Yoga techniques use gravity, leverage and tension while holding poses for varying lengths of time. Ancient texts describe rapid breathing (kapalabhati) as cleansing and stimulating and slow breathing (nadisuddhi), particularly through alternate nostrils, as calming.

Yoga has undergone much scientific study, with various psychological and physical theories suggested. In human research, yoga has been shown to reduce heart rate and blood pressure, increase breath holding time and lung capacity, improve muscle relaxation and body composition, cause weight loss and increase overall physical endurance. Yoga may positively affect levels of brain or blood chemicals, such as monoamines, melatonin, stress hormones (cortisol) and GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid). Changes in several mental functions, including perception, attention, cognition, processing of sensory information and visual perception, are described in human research.

Multiple previous human studies report benefits of yoga (such as breathing exercises) when added to other treatments for mild-to-moderate asthma (such as standard drug therapy, diet or massage).

In a new study, researchers randomly assigned 19 women with asthma to a 10-week yoga training program or a control group. Quality of life was evaluated through the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire and heart rate variability was measure through a handgrip exercise test.

After 10 weeks, the researchers found that quality of life significantly improved for women in the yoga group when compared to the control group. Heart rate variability measurements also improved significantly for those participating in yoga.

The authors concluded that yoga may be beneficial for women with asthma.

In addition to yoga, many other integrative therapies have been studied for their potential benefits in asthma patients. Choline is possibly effective when taken by mouth for asthma. Choline supplements seem to decrease the severity of symptoms, number of symptomatic days and the need to use bronchodilators in asthma patients. There is some evidence that higher daily doses might be more effective than lower daily doses. Additionally, family psychotherapy may slightly improve wheezing and thoracic gas volume for children with asthma.

For more information about integrative therapies for asthma, please visit Natural Standard's Comparative Effectiveness Database.

For more information about yoga, please visit Natural Standard's Health & Wellness Database.

Comments

[BC]

Yoga seems to be very beneficial in many different ways. Apart from helping people feel relaxed and exercise, the idea of yoga helping with asthma is such an awesome bonus. It motivates me to encourage practicing yoga as part of an exercise routine as it seems to have so many benefits.

[J Squared]

Every day I learn something different that yoga is beneficial for. While doing a site visit at a massage therapy place, I learned that thai yoga massage can help with flexibility and stability in patients who have Parkinson’s disease, and supplementing that with weekly yoga sessions is even more useful in aiding with strengths. I am not surprised that yoga helps with breathing and therefore asthmatics since it works every muscle in our bodies.

[nh]

This is so cool! I thought that yoga's benefits were limited to relaxation and muscle relaxation, but to think it helps asthma! Breathing is a very big part of yoga, and it makes sense that it would increase breath holding time and lung capacity. The severity of asthma may affect the impact yoga has on improving the quality of life, and it will be great to see more evidence and studies done on this topic, as asthma management is a large part of patient care.

[ee]

After attending a yoga session yesterday with the instructor explaining every move he made us perform, I believe yoga can help improve the quality of life for asthmatics. I say so because I noticed my breathing pattern improved, I felt more relaxed and my posture was improved.
I hope doctors in the future will recommend adding an alternative therapy such as yoga, in addition to their regular inhalers, to improve the long function of asthmatics.

[NA]

Yoga and other types of exercise could potentially improve the quality of life for those with various health conditions. It makes sense that yoga can improve the quality of life for asthma patients since this practice is generally calming and involves a focus on breathing. Though this would be difficult to quantify and/or study, I wonder if asthma patients would have an easier time during an asthma exacerbation using the increased breath awareness learned from yoga. I think it’s great that alternative therapies are being studied in conjunction with conventional ones, and this article presents a good example!

[MAK]

This is a very interesting article and correlation. I don’t doubt that yoga has a positive effect in this patient population, but it would be great to see a larger study conducted to confirm these results. More often than ever it seems that people are turning to yoga as an alternative treatment for various diseases. It’s really great that the Natural Standard has reviewed a ton of studies involving yoga. Their monograph on yoga is fabulous because it reviews over 25 disease states that yoga has been studied in as a potential treatment option.

[AS]

After reading this blog last week I went to NS Comparative Effectiveness table and checked out the available evidence for health benefits with yoga as well as other CAM therapies. NS is such a great resource for health care practitioners to provide patients with evidence based information on alternative therapies.

[LO]

I was surprised to learn that yoga has Grade A evidence in the treatment of asthma and hypertension! There's no pill or inhaler that you have to use daily, just the enjoyment of relaxation and getting in a workout. Yoga provides benefits for overall health, and I found it interesting that it's being studied in specific disease states. I look forward to more conditions being added to that "Grade A" evidence list!

[LindaB]

The mechanisms of action posted by the authors seem plausible, along with the possible decrease in inflammation that would occur after ten weeks of practicing yoga...in my opinion, yoga probably IS helpful in decreasing the severity of asthmatic symptoms. However, the challenges of quantitatively measuring subjective data such as "quality of life" may reduce the credibility of the results for most science-driven people. Either way, this is definitely an interesting article.

[SB]

Jessica, I agree with your questions regarding the study and the impact on certain measurements, such as those that may be measured with a peak flow meter. 19 participants is a very small sample size and it seems like there could potentially be some confounding variables involved. However, a strength of this study was that these participants were randomly assigned to study groups. I think that conducting the study in less than 10 weeks might not be adequate to demonstrate the benefits of yoga so I understand why they may have designed it that way. Personally, I find yoga to be a lot of fun and a great stress reliever. I really hope that the research on this topic continues!

[Jessica Lynch]

I think yoga is great, but I am not sure if I can put much stock into this study. It only involved 19 people, and 10 weeks is a significant amount of time for other factors to contribute to quality of life. I would be interested in finding out if there were any confounding factors (stressful situations, changes in diet/medication/other exercise habits). I am also curious about how the authors related heart rate to quality of life and asthma. I would be interested in seeing more clinical measurements such as forced expiratory volume.

[AD]

I had no idea that yoga was rated so highly in the comparative effectiveness for asthma! I was only familiar with yoga for general relaxation and well being, as well as its potential cardiovascular benefits. It seems like we are finding more and more data to support using this technique every day! I have a friend who is a research coordinator for many yoga studies and its amazing how much positive feedback she gets talking to those who practice it!

I wonder how the benefits of yoga compare to the other lifestyle modification mentioned (such as diet, or massage)

[ronak]

This is very interesting news! As a person who suffers from mild exercise induced asthma, seeing that yoga can be beneficial in improving lung function capacity is amazing. Since this study was done in women, do you believe that the same results can be seen in men? If so, would it involve the same exercises such as breathing exercises, or would different forms of yoga benefit men with asthma differently? Overall, I am so happy to see the positive results seen here because this is a very safe low side effect profile management of controlling your asthma, with other benefits intertwined.

[AS]

Yoga is definitely beneficial for overall health and wellness and with so many types of yoga available there should be something for everyone. This is great that research is developing for CAM therapies for common conditions. From my experience, yoga teaches you to control your breathing while strengthening you body and mind, so I can see how this could be beneficial for asthmatics who may not be able to participate in other forms of exercise. It will be interesting to see how more studies into the benefits of yoga and other CAM modalities continue to develop.

[E]

I'm really interested in looking into the data mentioned here on family psychotherapy and asthma in children. I wonder if there is some sort of psychological aspect to childhood asthma that isn't well-defined yet? I'm headed right over to the Comparative Effectiveness database to check it out.

[Charles]

This is great news! Yoga may not only improve lung function in asthmatic patients but it probably increases the overall health of the individual. There are many styles of yoga, too, so I wonder if different types of yoga may benefit a patient more?

[DC]

Yoga is a combination of meditation and exercises. It is known to help calm your mind and practiced in different diseases. Asthma is common among children and adults and yoga's effectiveness can help with the treatment and control symptoms. Interesting article and hope studies further support the claim.

[Scooby]

I attempted yoga once in my life, and I don't recall it making me feel any better, haha...but it may not be for everybody. Exercise in general is always good for the body and mind; whether it be yoga, Pilates, cardio, etc. Yoga may prove to have substantial benefits with many conditions, including overall health of an individual. If you like it, then stick with it. As for asthma patients, it doesn't force the body to increase the frequency of breathing like that of a cardio intensive workout (running). So more deep breathing and control can be used which may be beneficial to asthma patients.

I also didn't know about the choline supplementation and asthma however, and I find this quite interesting and it would be beneficial to find out more about choline use with asthma therapy.

[GG]

This is so interesting! I love that yoga is such great excercise, and now its great to hear about all of the amazing health benefits associated with it. I'll definitely keep going to class after all this awesome news!

[UP]

I think this is fascinating. I have heard that it helps with breathing related issues before, so it is great that it is coming out in trials. While more studies need to be completed, it would be nice to see insurances covering yoga sessions for asthmatics or other health conditions because cost of classes does keep some from taking them.

[gwanbobmuga-gdc]

This is really interesting. We learn new things almost every minute in our lives. Good breathing influences the activities of each and every cell and what better way to do it than to have a good posture. Breath also has a direct connection with brain function. When you take deep breaths and empty your lungs almost completely, there is improvement and effectiveness of each breath and lung function. Yoga breathing helps with many different medical conditions. Getting into the habit of breathing well is beneficial to every person, but for those with Asthma it is very essential. Also, taking slow, deep and rhythmic breaths stimulates a calm and content state of mind enabling the brain to function properly. This proper way of breathing will help avoid physical, emotional, and mental constrains thereby avoiding body internal conflicts and imbalances and improving your lifestyles and general health.

[CHD]

I have to wonder if the benefits of increased lung capacity and longer breath holding ability have any bearing on quality life. I feel like if lung capacity was improved then patients with asthma would feel less like they are suffocating. I'd like to see more evidence for alternative treatments compared to inhaled corticosteroids since these medicines tend to be very expensive per month and have some uncomfortable side effects.

[CC]

I recently researched yoga and its effectiveness for anxiety. When someone has asthma they can become anxious about having an asthma attack; however, anxiety only makes asthma worse. I wonder if yoga helped improve quality of life by helping the patients reduce anxiety. Also, I did a quick review of the yoga monograph and found that it received an evidence grade A for asthma. This is something I will consider recommending to my poorly controlled asthma patients.

[MN]

This is a very interesting read! I have always enjoyed the benefits of yoga in a spiritual way. I didn't realize that it could help my breathing problems as well. The breathing exercises in yoga condition your lungs to optimize and increase your lung capacity. I always feel so revitalized after a good yoga session and this could be one of the reasons for it!

[DC]

What a natural way to heal. With many people focusing towards alternative therapies, yoga brings in a healthy source with its many benefits that already exists.

[PCO]

Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years. It serves as a great non-aerobic form of exercise. It is great that more research is coming out in regards to the beneficial effect of yoga. This gives us another reason to do yoga.

[DM]

As an advocate of both exercise and relaxation, it is great to hear about new-found benefits of yoga. I knew that yoga could help to decrease high blood pressure, but I didn’t know that it could help patients with asthma as well. I checked out the Natural Standard database and found out that yoga also has good scientific evidence for people with anxiety and depression. What a great way to take care of both your body and your mind!

[E]

I'm so glad researchers are highlighting the uses of this therapy. As someone who practices yoga, I can say I've seen many benefits in my own well-being. This is a therapy that is appropriate in almost everyone, and definitely something for practioners to think about in terms of whole health for their patients.