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Yoga can help guard against heart disease, too. Yoga has long been touted as a way to improve strength and flexibility. New data has also found that it may have heart benefits. “A review of 37 studies involving nearly 3,000 people found yoga was linked to a lowering of heart risk factors. Compared with no exercise, yoga was linked to a lower risk of obesity, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol. When pitched against other types of exercise, such as brisk walking or jogging, yoga was no better or worse based on the same measures of heart risk. It is not clear why yoga might be beneficial, but experts say it could be due to its calming effect. Stress has been linked to heart disease and high blood pressure.” While there are other benefits to more strenuous exercise related to increased endurance, those looking to start out a new regimen might consider yoga. As one author put it, “These results indicate that yoga is potentially very useful and worth pursuing as a heart risk improvement practice.”
