Doing yoga may help reduce blood pressure among people with hypertension, a new analysis of past studies suggests.

There is now a growing number of randomized controlled trials on yoga for a variety of medical conditions, Holger Cramer told Reuters Health in an email.

But, he added, the quality and expressiveness of these trials varies, thus, it is often difficult to evaluate the real evidence for the usefulness of yoga in a specific condition based on single trials.

Cramer led the review at the Faculty of Medicine at University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany.

Previous studies have suggested yoga may be beneficial for a number of health conditions, including irregular heart rhythms and posttraumatic stress disorder (see Reuters Health stories of January 30, 2013 here: reut.rs/1jawFIW and April 18, 2014 here: reut.rs/1hYvQY9).

Cramer said he has published reviews on yoga for low back pain, breast cancer, schizophrenia, depression, menopausal symptoms, cardiovascular risk factors, heart disease, asthma and rheumatic diseases.

The current review on yoga for hypertension is part of this ongoing project. In my opinion, since yoga is widely used all over the world for a number of health issues, it is of crucial importance to scientifically evaluate where it is useful - and where it is not, he said.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Hypertension.

Cramer and his colleagues combined the results of seven previous studies that included 452 patients. In each of those studies, people with high or borderline-high blood pressure were randomly assigned to practice yoga for at least eight weeks or to get usual blood pressure care or another type of treatment instead.

The researchers found that on average, yoga reduced systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by about 10 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) by 7 mm Hg, compared to usual care.

Read the original here:
Yoga may help reduce blood pressure- Sustained workouts may help aging hearts