Practicing yoga may enhance your heart health, according to a newly published study.
For the study, researchers compared the electrocardiograms of 42 healthy, non-yoga-practicing adults to those of 42 experienced yoga practitioners. All study participants were male, aged 18 to 48.
Study results revealed that yoga practitioners appear to have higher heart rate variability, a measure of beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. In individuals with high heart rate variability, the study's authors explain, heart rate is steady but ready to respond to changes induced by factors such as eating or stress. Low heart rate variability, on the other hand, may be a marker of cardiac abnormalities.
In previous studies, scientists have found that yoga may decrease a number of cardiovascular disease risk factors (including high blood pressure), as well as aid in the management of cardiovascular disease.
