A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has revealed that yoga may help people with irregular heartbeats – medically known as atrial fibrillation or AF. The findings further deduce that regular yoga practitioners have less chances of contacting AF or arrhythmia burden. However, before confirming the same, the authors plan to conduct randomized trials to attest the veracity of their findings.
At the University of Kansas Medical Center, a team of researchers, including Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy and colleagues, observed 52 paroxysmal AF patients who were given stable medical therapy, followed by three months of yoga training. The yoga training proved fairly beneficial for patients, who reported to face lesser or nil symptomatic AF, symptomatic non-AF and asymptomatic AF episodes. Moreover, yoga training allowed patients to improve their general health, social functioning, mental health and physical functioning as well, which was marked by decrease in blood pressure and heart rate.
