Utilizing yoga for managing metabolic syndrome: Insights and techniques
Switched Up and Sharper:
Yoga enthusiasts, known as 'yogis,' gush about yoga's potential health benefits for body and mind. But what does science say? A recent study delves into the effect of yoga on people with metabolic syndrome. Here, Medical News Today has been dishing out reports on studies showcasing yoga's wide-ranging benefits for our health.
From boosting brain health and cognitive functions, alleviating thyroid issues, and easing depression symptoms, to aiding prostate enlargement and diabetes management in men—it seems yoga might cure all! However, most of these studies are observational, so they can't establish causality. Furthermore, few studies have explored the mechanisms behind these benefits.
But a study led by Dr. Parco Siu, from the University of Hong Kong, China, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports investigated the effect of yoga on cardiometabolic health. The study found that yoga benefits people with metabolic syndrome, while also unveiling the mechanisms behind these benefits.
Yoga Supercharges the Immune System
Metabolic syndrome, often linked with type 2 diabetes and heart disease, affects nearly half of the adult population in the U.S. Dr. Siu and his colleagues previously found that a year of yoga lowered blood pressure and waist circumference. Intrigued, they wanted to see the impact of a year of yoga in people with metabolic syndrome and high-normal blood pressure.
97 participants, split into a control group and a yoga group, were enrolled for the study. While the control group was simply monitored, the yoga group underwent three hour-long yoga sessions each week for a year.
The researchers analyzed the patients' sera for adipokines, signaling proteins released by fat tissue that interact with the immune system.
Study authors summarize their findings, stating, "[The] results demonstrated that 1-year yoga training decreased proinflammatory adipokines and increased anti-inflammatory adipokine in adults with [metabolic syndrome] and high-normal blood pressure." In simpler terms, yoga seems to revamp the immune system, making it less inflammatory.
How Yoga Calms Inflammation
Yoga's anti-inflammatory effects can be attributed to its reduction in harmful inflammatory markers, modulation of stress-related hormones, and stimulation of the lymphatic system. By taming the nervous system, yoga indirectly suppresses cortisol, which can overdrive inflammation and interfere with insulin response. Yoga's positive impact on the autonomic nervous system, insulin sensitivity, and immunity collectively contribute to better management of metabolic syndrome and chronic inflammation.
- Despite the enthusiasm surrounding yoga's potential health benefits, scientific studies often lack causality, especially in the areas of mental health, thyroid issues, depression, prostate enlargement, and diabetes management.
- However, a study by Dr. Parco Siu and his team from the University of Hong Kong, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, has revealed that yoga benefits individuals with metabolic syndrome and high-normal blood pressure.
- The study, which lasted a year and involved 97 participants, discovered that yoga appeared to revamp the immune system, making it less inflammatory, as indicated by the decreased proinflammatory adipokines and increased anti-inflammatory adipokines in the participants' sera.
- This study suggests that yoga's anti-inflammatory effects can be attributed to its reduction in harmful inflammatory markers, modulation of stress-related hormones, and stimulation of the lymphatic system, collectively contributing to better management of metabolic syndrome and chronic inflammation.
