NCT03428542

Yoga and Psychological and Physiological Health

The Effects of Yoga on Psychological and Physiological Health in a Population Based Cohort

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 105 (actual)
• Sponsor: Region Skane · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 40 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to evaluate the benefits of yoga as a 'mind-body' practice, by measuring it's effects on health-related psychological and physiological variables. The study also aims to investigate whether an association exists between subjective (psychological) and objective (physiological) measures, with a particular focus on stress as the primary outcome.

Detailed description

Stress and worry in everyday life are common features of Western society. Stress is a biological mechanism tapping the fight-or-flight-response via activation of the sympathetic nervous system. When exposed to stress during prolonged periods of time, the immune system is affected, leading to physiological as well as psychosocial problems. The consequences of untreated high stress can not only turn into reduced job capacity, and work roles conflicts, but also into cardiovascular disease, and mental illness such as an anxiety disorder or/and depression. One common and recommended strategy to manage stress is to exercise regularly. Yoga is an umbrella term for a wide variety of physical, mental, and spiritual practices with its roots in ancient India. Most previous research on the health effects of yoga has demonstrated benefits on psychological health factors including mental stress, anxiety, depression and sleep problems. The aim of the study is thus to investigate the effects of two types of yoga intervention on psychological and physiological health.

Conditions

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleep
• Physiological Stress

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Yin yoga	Yin yoga 2 times per week for 5 weeks. Daily breathing assignments.
BEHAVIORAL	YOMI	30 minutes of psychoeducation combined with mindfulness practice followed by 60 minutes of Yin yoga allowing the psychological theme to be further explored, aided by verbal instructions of the yoga teacher. 2 times per week for 5 weeks. Daily breathing assignments.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-01-11
• Primary completion: 2016-04-23
• Completion: 2016-04-23
• First posted: 2018-02-09
• Last updated: 2018-02-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Sweden