Impact of yoga on blood pressure and quality of life in patients with hypertension – a controlled trial in primary care, matched for systolic blood pressure

Abstract

BackgroundMedical treatment of hypertension is not always sufficient to achieve blood pressure control. Despite this, previous studies on supplementary therapies, such as yoga, are relatively few. We investigated the effects of two yoga interventions on blood pressure and quality of life in patients in primary health care diagnosed with hypertension.MethodsAdult patients (age 20–80 years) with diagnosed hypertension were identified by an electronic chart search at a primary health care center in southern Sweden. In total, 83 subjects with blood pressure values of 120–179/≤109 mmHg at baseline were enrolled. At baseline, the patients underwent standardized blood pressure measurement at the health care center and they completed a questionnaire on self-rated quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF). There were three groups: 1) yoga class with yoga instructor (n = 28); 2) yoga at home (n = 28); and 3) a control group (n = 27). The participants were matched at the group level for systolic blood pressure. After 12 weeks of intervention, the assessments were performed again. At baseline a majority of the patients (92%) were on antihypertensive medication, and the patients were requested not to change their medication during the study.ResultsThe yoga class group showed no improvement in blood pressure or self-rated quality of life, while in the yoga at home group there was a decline in diastolic blood pressure of 4.4 mmHg (p < 0.05) compared to the control group. Moreover, the yoga at home group showed significant improvement in self-rated quality of life compared to the control group (p < 0.05).ConclusionsA short yoga program for the patient to practice at home seems to have an antihypertensive effect, as well as a positive effect on self-rated quality of life compared to controls. This implies that simple yoga exercises may be useful as a supplementary blood pressure therapy in addition to medical treatment when prescribed by primary care physicians.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01302535)

Acute effects of yoga on ocular perfusion pressure in adult yoga practitioners

“…The reduction in MAP noted in our study is in accordance with a study on yoga and hypertension done by Wolff et al [6] Although there was a change in IOP following yoga, it was not statistically significant. This observation is in contradiction to another study which states that yogic poses such as adho mukha svanasana and uttanasana were associated with greater IOP elevation.…”

“…These results suggest that simple yogic exercises might be useful as a supplementary therapy for hypertension in addition to medical treatment. [6] However, further studies on hypertensive patients are needed to confirm the antihypertensive effect of yoga. Although OPP was reduced, autoregulation might maintain blood flow despite changes in perfusion pressure in young adults.…”

Negative Air Pressure on Wet Cupping in Decreasing Blood Pressures in Hypertensive Patients

“…Considering to repeat cupping at the same point can only perform after 4 weeks (Kusyati, 2015), the researchers recommend to support cupping with negative air pressure loads of 400-540 mbar at 3 points, low-sodium diet modification and physical exercise activities (Albert & Effiong, 2015) and yoga (Wolff, Sundquist, Lönn, & Midlöv, 2013) with the intention to decrease BP. The pattern recommended was cupping followed with Kundalini yoga at the week I then continued with diet modification and exercise to week II after cupping.…”

Hatha Yoga as a Form of Physical Activity in the Context of Lifestyle Disease Prevention

“…Participants were divided into three intervention groups: yoga class with an instructor, yoga at home, and a control group. The authors did not observe any significant differences in systolic blood pressure from baseline between the yoga groups and the control group [21].…”