Yoga: At the Heart of Fitness?

For more information on starting a yoga program: • The New Yoga for Healthy Aging by Suza Francina (2007, HCI Books, $16.95). •  Lilias! AM & PM Yoga for Seniors, featuring the host of the long-running PBS yoga show. (www.collagevideo.com or 1-800-433-6769, $19.95). • www.yogafinders.com, to find websites • americanyogaassociation.org: Overview of yoga, plus tips on how to find a class that’s right for you, an A-Z yoga glossary and information on vegetarian diets and nutrition. • www.iyogalife.com: Yoga news and descriptions and videos of yoga poses.

Can the gentle, relaxing rhythms of yoga help your heart the same way as a briskly paced 30-minute walk or swimming laps at the local pool?

A new study seems to suggest that, at least for some people with heart disease, the answer is a surprising “yes.”

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine measured the effects of regular yoga practice on older adults with chronic heart failure. The nine subjects, whose median age was 53, practiced yoga twice a week in a class setting. Each session involved a 10-minute warm-up, 40 minutes of standing and seated asanas (poses), followed by 20 minutes of relaxation and deep breathing exercises.

Sounds barely enough to break a sweat. Yet, the researchers found that in just eight weeks, the subjects improved their exercise tolerance (their ability to withstand the stress of physical activity) and increased their body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently. Answering a questionnaire designed to assess the effect of heart failure on physical and social functioning in older adults, the participants reported an enhanced quality of life. Yoga even seemed to have an effect on some key blood markers related to heart failure. “These were all improved with yoga in just a few weeks,” said Bobby Khan, M.D., lead researcher on the study. These results were presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific conference in fall 2007 and will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Cardiac Failure.    

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 5 million Americans have chronic (or “congestive”) heart failure, the result of coronary artery disease, hypertension and diabetes. In this condition, the heart cannot pump sufficient blood and oxygen to meet the body’s needs.

It’s not entirely clear why the health of the people in the Emory yoga study showed some improvement, so “they need to do it with a larger number of patients,” said Gerald Fletcher, M.D., a spokesman for the American Heart Association and director of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. “But this is a good indication that yoga could be a beneficial form of activity to people with chronic heart failure.”

This is the second recent study to find heart-healthy benefits in yoga practice. Research done in India and published in 2007 in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, found that adults with metabolic syndrome—a group of conditions that raises the risk of cardiovascular disease—lowered their waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar and triglycerides after practicing basic yoga and meditation for three months.

Fletcher said yoga may offer additional benefits to all older adults, whether or not they have heart conditions. For example, regular yoga practice has been shown to improve balance. “Improving balance may not directly improve heart health per se,” he says. “But it can help you to better perform those activities, like walking and bicycling, that will.” Such aerobic activities, he adds, should still form the core of a healthy exercise regimen. “But as a supplement I think this might be very beneficial,” he says. “I would encourage older people to consider a yoga class a couple times a week.”

The problem might be finding that class. “Older people who walk into a general yoga class like that usually don’t come back a second time,” says Jeff Logan, 61, who teaches yoga in Huntington, N.Y. “The typical yoga student is a female between the ages of 35 and 45 who is looking for a challenging workout.” An older beginner in a class of 20 of these fit and experienced yoginis “is going to feel pretty self-conscious.”  

Instead, Logan recommends classes geared toward older adults that are often available in adult education programs, YMCAs and adult communities. Basic poses are emphasized and in some cases modified for older beginners. The pace is slower and the intensity lower than in some of the “power” yoga classes common in the fitness world.

Once in a class geared toward them, older adults can stretch out and enjoy this 5,000-year-old discipline. The perception that yoga is available only to Indian mystics or Madonna vanishes.  

“They love it, right from the first day!” says Logan, who has taught many yoga classes for older adults. “Even if they just stretch their arms, they feel alive.”

Based on the Emory study, that good feeling may extend from their arms all the way to their hearts.