Yoga Linked to Benefits in Patients With Asthma

According to a new study, taking part in yoga may help curtail symptoms and improve the quality of life for patients with asthma.

A team of Cochrane Review researchers analyzed 15 randomized controlled trials including 1048 men and women. Most of these trials were conducted in India, followed by Europe and the United States, according to the authors, who note that the majority of patients had experienced mild to moderate asthma for 6 months to more than 23 years.
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Overall, 6 of these studies evaluated the effects of breathing along during yoga exercise, while the remaining trials weighed the effects of yoga that included breathing, posture, and meditation. Most individuals participating in the studies—which ranged from 2 weeks to more than 4 years in duration— continued to take their usual asthma medication while doing so.

Ultimately, the investigators found moderate-quality evidence from 5 studies indicating that yoga exercise lessens the impact of asthma on individuals’ quality of life. Evidence of yoga’s bearing on participants’ lung function, however, was less definitive, according to the authors, who attribute this lack of certainty to the varying results of the numerous studies. Yoga’s effects on medication use, and the potential adverse effects associated with yoga, are also unclear, the authors wrote, noting that only a handful of small studies reported these outcomes.

Current guidelines for the treatment of asthma “recommend a severity-based, stepwise approach” that commonly includes agents such as inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta agonists, said Zu-Yao Yang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a coauthor of the study.

This review “shows that yoga probably improves quality of life and symptoms in people with asthma, to some extent. However, whether or not the improvements in symptoms exceed the minimal clinically important differences is uncertain, due to the lack of an established cutoff value,” Yang said, noting that “data on adverse events was very limited.”

In light of the “moderate-to-very low evidence quality, both the efficacy and safety profile of yoga require clarification via more rigorously designed studies,” Yang said. “Therefore, primary care practitioners may inform their patients of yoga as a potential option to relieve some asthma-related problems, but should also [make them aware of] the uncertainty around yoga’s effects toward the end of informed decision-making.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference:
Yang Z-Y, Zhong H-B, Mao C, et al. Yoga for asthma. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;(4): CD010346. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010346.pub2.