Yoga: What You Need To Know

What are the health benefits of yoga?

Research suggests that yoga may:

1. Help improve general wellness by relieving stress, supporting good health habits, and improving mental/emotional health, sleep, and balance.

2. Relieve low-back pain and neck pain, and possibly pain from tension-type headaches and knee osteoarthritis.

3. Help people who are overweight or obese lose weight.

4. Help people quit smoking.

5. Help people manage anxiety or depressive symptoms associated with difficult life situations.

6. Relieve menopause symptoms.

7. Help people with chronic diseases manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

Although there’s been a lot of research on the health effects of yoga, many studies have included only small numbers of people and haven’t been of high quality. Therefore, in most instances, we can only say that yoga has shown promise for particular health uses, not that it’s been proven to help.

Can yoga help with pain management?

Research has been done on yoga for several conditions that involve pain. Studies of yoga for low-back pain and neck pain have had promising results, and yoga is among the options that the American College of Physicians recommends for first-line treatment of chronic low-back pain. Preliminary evidence suggests that yoga may also be helpful for tension headaches and knee osteoarthritis pain.

Can yoga help with menopause symptoms?

Yoga seems to be at least as effective as other types of exercise in relieving menopause symptoms. A 2018 evaluation of 13 studies (more than 1,300 participants) of yoga for menopause symptoms found that yoga reduced physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, as well as psychological symptoms, such as anxiety or depression.

Is yoga helpful for people with chronic diseases?

There’s promising evidence that yoga may help people with some chronic diseases manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Thus, it could be a helpful addition to treatment programs.