Nutrition & DietYoga Put to the Test Reveals Where It Truly Beats Other Exercise
Yoga is practiced by tens of millions of Americans, but how well does it work? Observational studies show yoga users are healthier and leaner, though that may be reverse causation: healthier people may simply be more likely to do yoga. Randomized trials give a clearer picture. Yoga shows no benefit for depression versus doing nothing, and its anxiety relief appears to come from physical activity itself, since other exercise works equally well. It does seem to pull ahead for chronic nonspecific neck pain, improving pain, disability, range of motion and mood, even against other exercise. For type 2 diabetes, yoga lowered blood sugar more than exercise controls, but weak control-group designs and mostly Indian studies urge caution. Yoga also matched walking for irritable bowel syndrome. Against other exercise, it improved lower-limb strength and flexibility, while balance, mobility and walking speed were comparable.
