by Chelsea Padget

Created on: October 27, 2010   Last Updated: October 28, 2010

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S., and the major cause of disability. Prevention of heart disease can be obtained through diet and exercise. But what kind of exercise will it take to decrease your risk of heart disease? Can practicing a yoga lifestyle help prevent heart disease?

Yoga can reduce stress and improve concentration. Reducing stress has been shown to help decrease the risk of developing heart disease. Yoga studies have shown that yoga can reduce your risk of coronary artery disease.

Yoga is a lifestyle that involves exercise, smoking cessation and the implementation of a low-fat, Mediterranean diet along with relaxation and meditation. Yoga exercise consists of well thought out poses designed to increase the health of specific body areas, illnesses and disease.

Yoga breathing (pranayama), has been shown to slow the heart and regulate breathing. This allows more oxygen to be pumped out into the body, fortifying organs and body parts with the oxygen that's needed for health.

Many studies have been done on Yoga to determine if yoga can decrease your risks of heart disease. So far, studies have shown that by practicing yoga as a lifestyle change, including diet, exercise and relaxation and meditation, yoga can have a great effect on not only heart disease, but many other illnesses and diseases. Yoga has been shown to also:

1. Decrease depression and increase self-esteem and memory loss

2. Increase muscle strength through certain strengthening poses

3. Decrease your heart rate and blood pressure

4. Strengthens the Autonomic Nervous System, which regulates heart rate

5. Allows your heart to pump quicker, pumping more blood to and from your heart

Several studies have shown that practicing yoga on a regular basis can improve coronary artery disease risk factors such as, cholesterol, body weight and blood pressure. In a randomized trial, yoga was shown to be as effective in treating high blood pressure as the antihypertensive medications used.

Yoga breathing is as important in yoga as it's poses. Yoga breathing has been shown to effect the rhythm of your heart through the CNS, oxygenating your blood and improving your overall mood, and decreasing your risks of heart disease.

Dr. Dean Ornish concluded in his study that, practicing yoga three times a week on a regular basis cannot only decrease your risk of heart disease, but can actually reverse heart disease.

Before starting any exercise program, talk to your doctor to make sure you are healthy enough to practice yoga.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/0911091 21216.htm

http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/heartcenter/about/newsart icle.aspx?id=1534

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