Practicing Yoga Benefits Heart Failure Patients

Yoga is associated with symptom improvement in patients with heart failure, according to new research presented at Heart Failure 2024, the annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

In this study, researchers assessed 85 patients (average age, 49 years; 82% men) with heart failure. In a nonrandomized fashion, 40 patients were assigned to the intervention (yoga) group and 45 patients were allocated to the control group. In the intervention group, participants were provided yoga training focused on meditation and relaxation techniques by experienced faculty.

Participants were supervised for 1 week and then advised to continue self-administered yoga at home once a week for 50 minutes. The entire study population continued taking guideline-recommended heart failure medications for the study duration. At study baseline, 6 months, and 1 year, the researchers analyzed heart structure and function in the intervention and control groups using echocardiography.

According to the results, compared with the control group, patients in the intervention group demonstrated notably greater improvements in all measurements at 6 months and 1 year relative to baseline. “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,” said study author Dr. Ajit Singh, of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, in India, via a press release. “The findings suggest that yoga can be a beneficial complementary therapy in patients with heart failure.”