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May 8, 2024

Yoga Can Improve Your Blood Lipid Profile

Yoga significantly improves total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol

A large study involving 11,254 adults at high risk for Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) investigated the impact of a validated integrated yoga lifestyle protocol (DYP) on lipid profiles.

Participants were divided into two groups: a yoga group that practiced DYP for nine days followed by daily one-hour sessions, and a control group that received standard medical advice on diabetes lifestyle management.

After three months, the yoga group showed significant improvements in serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) compared to the control group.

Key findings include:

- Yoga had a regulatory effect on lipid levels, increasing them if they were low and decreasing them if they were high, thus normalizing values to a healthy range.

- The yoga protocol consisted of yoga postures, breathing practices, relaxation, pranayama, meditation, and lectures on yogic lifestyle for behavioral modification.

- Both groups were given standard medical advice on a healthy diet, regular exercise, habits, and stress management.

This study suggests that a yoga lifestyle can positively regulate blood lipid levels in individuals with prediabetes and diabetes, potentially reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke associated with dyslipidemia in T2DM.

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Reference

Nagarathna, Raghuram et al. “Effectiveness of Yoga Lifestyle on Lipid Metabolism in a Vulnerable Population-A Community Based Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.” Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 8,7 37. 13 Jul. 2021, doi:10.3390/medicines8070037 This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).