Weekly yoga practice improves symptoms, activity levels among patients with heart failure
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Key takeaways:
- Patients with heart failure who practiced yoga had lower BP, heart rate and BMI after 1 year.
- A weekly yoga practice was associated with lower symptom burden and greater ability to do ordinary tasks.
Adults with HF who practiced weekly yoga for 1 year had greater improvements in heart health than those receiving medical management alone, according to a poster presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s Heart Failure 2024 meeting.
“Patients who practiced yoga on top of taking their medications felt better, were able to do more and had stronger hearts than those who only took drugs for their heart failure,” Ajit Singh, PhD, of the Indian Council of Medical Research at Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India, said in a related press release. “The findings suggest that yoga can be a beneficial complementary therapy in patients with heart failure.”
The study included data from 85 patients aged 30 to 70 years (82% men; mean age, 49 years) being treated for HF at Kasturba Hospital in Manipal, India, who underwent coronary intervention or revascularization 6 months to 1 year earlier.
Researchers assigned 40 patients to a group tasked with practicing yoga weekly, whereas 45 served as the control group. All patients received guideline-recommended HF treatment during the study.
Patients in the yoga group spent the first week learning breathwork, meditation and relaxation techniques from the hospital’s department of yoga and spent the rest of the study period practicing yoga at home once a week for 50 minutes.
Researchers evaluated patients’ left ventricular ejection fraction and right ventricular function, as well as BP, heart rate, body weight and BMI. Additionally, they assessed symptom burden and patients’ ability to do ordinary activities, which were categorized from NYHA class I, meaning no limitations, to class IV, meaning HF symptoms at rest.
Follow-up occurred at 6 months and 1 year after baseline assessments.
Patients in the yoga group had greater improvement in all variables at both time points compared with the control group (P < .05 for all).
Specifically, the yoga group saw a significant decrease in mean systolic BP, from 135.7 mm Hg at baseline to 126.2 mm Hg after 1 year, whereas the control group saw an increase from 134.4 mm Hg at baseline to 137.1 mm Hg after 1 year (P < .05). Diastolic BP, heart rate and BMI decreased among both groups, but the yoga group saw more decreases than the control group (P < .05).
Patients in the yoga group also reported lower symptom burden after 1 year (P < .001). At baseline, most patients in both groups had class II HF, including 57% of the yoga group and 51% of the control group. After 1 year, 47% of those in the yoga group were class I, whereas 53% of the control group remained class II. Additionally, the proportion of class III patients decreased from 30% at baseline to 12% at 1 year in the yoga group, compared with a decrease from 35.6% at baseline to 20% at 1 year in the control group.
“Patients who did yoga had healthier hearts and were more able to carry out ordinary activities such as walking and climbing stairs than those who only took medications,” Singh said in the release. “Patients with heart failure should speak to their doctor before starting yoga and should then receive training from an experienced instructor. Prescribed medications should be continued as before. Yoga may be unsuitable for heart failure patients with severe symptoms, who were excluded from our study.”
Reference:
- Heart failure patients who do yoga have stronger hearts and can be more active. https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/Heart-failure-patients-who-do-yoga-have-stronger-hearts-and-can-be-more-active#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPatients%20who%20practised%20yoga%20on,Academy%20of%20Higher%20Education%2C%20India. Published May 12, 2024. Accessed June 6, 2024.
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Singh A, et al. Impact of yoga therapy on long-term outcomes in heart failure patients using functional and echocardiographic parameters. Presented at: Heart Failure 2024; May 11-14, 2024; Lisbon, Portugal.
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