News - Hypertension Week of June 29, 2003/ Vol. 2 No. 26

Study: Yoga May Aid Blood Pressure By Reducing Stress

Yoga may be effective in reducing stress and thereby lowering blood pressure, according to a study presented June 20 at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Philadelphia.

Stress has negative implications for the heart and blood vessels, raising the rate of the former, while constricting the latter and contributing to hypertension.

Study author Justin Mager, of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, found that yoga can decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

In an eight-day study of 16 healthy people who participated in a 50-minute set of classical yoga practices on each of seven days, cortisol levels were measured at various times during the study, before and after a 50-minute set of classical yoga.

Of the 48 total paired cortisol samples collected during the study, Mager found that 42 showed a decrease in blood cortisol after the yoga sessions.

"This study supports the idea that the practice of classical yoga evokes changes in an adrenal hormone, even among people with no prior yoga experience," Mager said.

Vijayendra Pratap, a collaborator on the study and director of the Philadelphia-based Yoga Research Society, suggests that further research is needed to test the physiological and therapeutic effects of classical yoga.

Other sources: Thomas Jefferson University