Managing Metabolic Syndrome with Yoga Practices
Yo, here's the spicy lowdown on the yoga deal. Yogis – the peeps who do yoga – always spout about how yoga improves body and mind, but what's the real science say? A new study looks into this, focusing on how yoga affects people with metabolic syndrome.
We at Medical News Today have been reporting on a slew of studies showing the various ways yoga might boost our health. For instance, some studies hint that yoga enhances brain health and cognition, clears up thyroid issues, and soothes the blues.
It's also suggested that yoga helps dudes handle their prostates bigger or conquer erectile dysfunction and gives diabetics a hand in controlling their symptoms. Well, it seems yoga is good for almost everything going by these studies, right?
Here's the catch though, most of these studies are observational – meaning they can't pin down cause and effect – and few have looked at the mechanisms behind the findings.
But a study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports and led by Dr. Parco M. Siu from the University of Hong Kong in China, dived into the effect of yoga on cardiometabolic health. Result? Yoga benefits people with metabolic syndrome and even reveals the mechanisms behind these benefits.
So, what's the big deal about metabolic syndrome? It's often associated with type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and the United States estimates that about of the adult population lives with it.
Dr. Siu and team earlier found lower blood pressure and a smaller waistline among those who practiced yoga for a year. So, they wanted to know the impact of a year of yoga on persons with metabolic syndrome. They assigned 97 participants with metabolic syndrome and high-normal blood pressure to either a control group or a yoga group.
The yoga group attended three 1-hour yoga sessions weekly for a year while the control group didn't receive any intervention but was monitored monthly. The researchers also checked the participant's blood for adipokines, proteins released by fat tissue, which tell the immune system to release either an inflammatory or anti-inflammatory response.
Results? The study showed that yoga for a year decreased proinflammatory adipokines and increased anti-inflammatory adipokines in those with metabolic syndrome.
"These findings support the beneficial role of yoga in managing metabolic syndrome by favorably modulating adipokines," commented the researchers. This suggests that yoga could be a great lifestyle choice for those with metabolic syndrome to reduce inflammation and manage symptoms.
Dr. Siu also discussed the results, "These findings help us understand the response of adipokines to long-term yoga exercise, which highlights the importance of regular exercise for human health."
Now, let's dive deeper into why yoga could affect inflammation:
- Stress Reduction: Yoga combines physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, which help cut down stress. Chronic stress spikes cortisol levels, which can worsen inflammation. By chilling out stress, yoga might indirectly decrease inflammation.
- ANS Modulation: Yoga practices like deep breathing and meditation can boost parasympathetic activity and lower sympathetic activity, leading to a more balanced Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). This balance may help in reducing chronic inflammation.
- Improved Immune Function: Yoga has been linked to better immune function, which can help in managing inflammation by encouraging a more efficient response to pathogens and reducing overactive inflammatory responses.
- Oxidative Stress Reduction: Yoga can strengthen antioxidant defenses, which help knock out oxidative stress, a major factor in inflammation's development in metabolic syndrome.
- Lifestyle Habits Improvement: Doing yoga encourages healthier lifestyle choices, like regular exercise, good eating habits, and enough sleep, all of which can contribute to reduced inflammation.
- Modulation of Inflammatory Markers: Some studies suggest that yoga can lessen the levels of inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), which often spike in metabolic syndrome.
- The study led by Dr. Parco M. Siu revealed that practicing yoga for a year can decrease proinflammatory adipokines and increase anti-inflammatory adipokines in people with metabolic syndrome.
- The beneficial role of yoga in managing metabolic syndrome, as suggested by the study, could be due to factors such as stress reduction, ANS modulation, improved immune function, oxidative stress reduction, lifestyle habits improvement, and modulation of inflammatory markers.
- Chronic stress, which can be reduced by yoga, can lead to higher cortisol levels that exacerbate inflammation. By reducing stress, yoga might indirectly decrease inflammation.
- A balanced Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), achieved through yoga practices like deep breathing and meditation, could help in reducing chronic inflammation.
In addition, yoga encourages healthier lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise, good eating habits, and adequate sleep, all of which can contribute to reduced inflammation. Furthermore, some studies suggest that yoga can lower the levels of inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), often elevated in metabolic syndrome.
