Practicing yoga may reduce chronic inflammation, help regulate blood pressure: Study

Practicing yoga may reduce chronic inflammation and help regulate blood pressure and blood sugar levels, a study has found.

Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, the study showed that one year of yoga training decreased pro-inflammatory adipokines and increased an anti-inflammatory adipokine in adults with metabolic syndrome and high-normal blood pressure.

"These findings help to reveal the response of adipokines to long-term yoga exercise, which underpins the importance of regular exercise to human health," said senior author Dr. Parco Siu, of The University of Hong Kong.

Adipokines are signaling proteins released by fat tissue.

The findings support the notion that yoga exercise might serve as an effective lifestyle intervention to reduce chronic inflammation and manage aspects of metabolic syndrome.